A Meta-Analytic Review of Depression Prevention Programs for Children and Adolescents: Factors that Predict Magnitude of Intervention Effects

摘要

This meta-analytic review summarizes the effects of depression prevention programs for youth and investigates participant, intervention, provider, and research design features associated with larger effects. We identified 47 trials that evaluated 32 prevention programs, producing 60 intervention effect sizes. The average effect for depressive symptoms from pre-to-post (r = .15) and pre-to-follow-up (r = .11) were small, but 13 (41%) prevention programs produced significant reductions in depressive symptoms and 4 (13%) produced significant reductions in risk for future depressive disorder onset relative to control groups. Larger effects emerged for programs targeting high-risk individuals, samples with more females, samples with older adolescents, programs with a shorter duration and homework assignments, and programs delivered by professional interventionists. Intervention content (e.g., a focus on reducing negative cognitions or problem solving training) and design features (e.g., use of random assignment and structured interviews) were unrelated to effect sizes. Results suggest that depression prevention efforts would produce a higher yield if they incorporate factors associated with larger intervention effects (e.g., used selective programs with a shorter duration that include homework).