Abstract
Traditionally, research on childhood mood disorders has focused on clinical trials
and longitudinal course and outcome studies, rather than on prevention. Recently,
however, advances in the design, methodology, and evaluation of prevention approaches
and progress in understanding what factors predispose children to depression have
made possible the development of theoretically driven, empirically justified approaches
to the prevention of depression in youngsters who are at high risk, either because
of elevated symptom levels or parental mood disorder. In this review, we outline recent
empirical findings on risk factors for depression in nonreferred samples of youngsters
and also in children of depressed parents. Additionally, we review three trials of
preventive interventions for childhood depression that yield promising initial findings.
We emphasize the need to understand both risks for depression and factors that protect
youngsters at risk from succumbing to depression in guiding the development of prevention
programs. We also argue that consideration of prevention of depression requires addressing
broader social adversity influences that lead to poor mental health outcomes in children,
even beyond the effects of parental mood disorder. We conclude with an emphasis on
the importance of a developmental-transactional perspective that highlights opportunities
for intervention at different points across the lifespan.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
February 27,
2001
Received in revised form:
February 9,
2001
Received:
November 21,
2000
Identification
Copyright
© 2001 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
