Prevention of depression among Icelandic adolescents: A 12-month follow-up
Section snippets
Participants
The initial participants who participated in a screening process were 1920 ninth grade Icelandic adolescents who were 14- or 15-years-old at the beginning of the study. Following the selection procedures and exclusion and inclusion criteria described in detail in Arnarson and Craighead (2009), 171 participants were randomly assigned to the study conditions. Assessment periods included baseline
Results
Of the 171 students who began the experimental study, 22 dropped out before the completion of the posttest (6 girls and 6 boys from the prevention group, and 6 girls and 4 boys from the TAU group); thus, 149 students (87.1%) participated in the posttest. One hundred thirty six students (79.5%) completed the 6-month follow-up assessment; 35 dropped out before the completion of the 6-month follow-up assessment (10 girls and 10 boys from the prevention group, and 9 girls and 6 boys from the TAU
Discussion
The 12-month follow-up data indicated that the preventive impact of a school-based program designed to prevent the initial episode of depression and/or dysthymia for “at-risk” teens was still present one year following the completion of participation in the program. Students who participated in the prevention intervention program had experienced significantly fewer initial episodes of depression or dysthymia when compared to TAU control participants who only participated in assessments at
Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by the Icelandic Science Fund (RANNIS), the University of Iceland Research Fund, the Landspitali-University Hospital Research Fund, and the Arnór Björnsson Memorial Fund. The study was also supported in part by a National Institute of Mental Health Grant R03-MH066207 (Craighead, PI), and it was written in part by the support to Craighead of “The Pursuit of Happiness” project established by the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University and
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