Group Intervention to Improve Parent-Adolescent Relationships

Parent involvement in psychosocial interventions for youth diagnosed with internalizing disorders has been cited as a contributor to better outcomes for these youth, and parent components have been included in several evidence-based interventions for adolescent mental health problems. Additionally, youth experiencing mood and behaviour changes that come about as a result of a depressive episode can lead to frustrated/overprotective reactions from parents, which can contribute to worse outcomes for these adolescents. Interventions focused on addressing parent-adolescent conflict and reducing negative interactions can potentially support recovery from depression and reduce episode relapse. However, there is very little research on including parent components in psychosocial interventions specifically aimed at youth depression. This randomized control trial aims to fill this gap by randomizing parents of youth receiving treatment for depression into either 1) an 8-week virtual or in-person group parent intervention, or 2) usual care. Participants will be parents or caregivers (for simplicity, the term "parent" is used to refer to parents or caregivers) of adolescents aged 13-18 with depression who are referred for outpatient services at a mental health research hospital in Toronto, Canada. Their adolescents will also participate in the study in order to provide multi-informant data; however, should adolescents decline to participate in the study, their parent will still be able to take part. Parents will complete a combination of questionnaire and observationally coded measures at pre- and posttreatment, along with questionnaire measures at mid-treatment and 3 months follow-up. Adolescents will only complete questionnaire measures for all four time points.