Preventing Depression In Early Adolescence: The Penn Resiliency Program

Abstract

Depressi on is one of the most prevalent psychological disorders and, as such, it is an important target for prevention efforts.It is associated with considerable suffering, impairments in interpersonal relationships, work, and achievement, and increased mortality through the exacerbation of health problems and increased risk for suicide (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).Recent research has identified several risk factors for depression, including genetic vulnerabilities, family conflict, traumatic life experiences, maladaptive cognitive styles, and elevated depressive symptoms, which has paved the way for the development of a wide range of prevention programs.During the past decade several prevention programs have been designed to prevent depressive symptoms and disorders in adults and children.Most of these interventions are based on cognitive-behavioral theories and treatments of depression, although this is starting to change as researchers begin to explore interpersonal, family, and other models of prevention.In this chapter we focus on the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP; Gillham, Jaycox, Reivich, Seligman, & Silver, 1990), an intervention designed to target cognitive and behavioral risk factors, to promote resilience, and to prevent symptoms of depression in early adolescence.We begin with a discussion of definitional issues.Next, we provide a brief overview of the theoretical and empirical background to PRP.We then describe the PRP intervention and review existing research on PRP's effectiveness.We close with a discussion of current work in progress and directions for future research.