EXAMINATION OF PREVENTIVE INTERVENTIONS FOR FAMILIES WITH DEPRESSION - EVIDENCE OF CHANGE

Thirty-seven families who had a child between the ages of 8 and 15 (me an age = 12.0 years) and had at least one parent who had experienced a recent episode of affective disorder were assigned randomly to one of two psychoeducational interventions. The interventions (clinician-fac ilitated or lecture-group discussion) were designed to prevent childho od depression and related problems through decreasing the impact of re lated risk factors and encouraging resiliency-promoting behaviors and attitudes. They were similar in content but differed in the level of t he children's involvement and the degree to which the families' indivi dual life experiences were linked to the educational material. Assessm ents included standard diagnostic and social functioning instruments a nd interviews designed specifically for this project to assess behavio r and attitude change. Each parent and child was individually assessed by separate assessors who were blind to information about the other f amily members. Parent participants in both groups reported being satis fied with the intervention. Clinician group participants reported a si gnificantly larger number of overall changes, as well as higher levels of change regarding communications about the illness with their child ren and increased understanding by the children of their illness. Sign ificantly more children in the clinician group also reported they gain ed a better understanding of parental affective illness as a result of their participation in the project.