Effects of an Adolescent Depression Prevention Program on Parental Criticisms and Positive Remarks

Abstract

This study examined the effects of a cognitive behavioral depression prevention program on parental criticisms and positive remarks, and whether effects varied by adolescents’ gender and parenting behavior. Of 305 adolescents (Mage = 14.79, SD = 1.36), half were randomized to the cognitive behavioral prevention (CBP) program, comprised of 8-weekly (acute) and 6-monthly (continuation) sessions; the other half were randomized to usual care (UC). At baseline and at the end of the continuation phase (9-month evaluation), parents were administered the Five-Minute Speech Sample, to measure “expressed emotion,” which is comprised of number of parental criticisms and number of positive remarks. We conducted separate hierarchical generalized linear models (HGLM) to predict levels of parental criticisms and positive remarks at 9 months, controlling for baseline scores, respectively. For criticisms, the condition by gender interaction and the condition by parental psychological control interaction were significant. Parents of boys in CBP made significantly fewer criticisms than parents of boys in UC, whereas parents of girls in CBP made significantly more critical comments than did parents of girls in UC. For parents high in PC, level of parental criticisms was significantly higher for youth in CBP versus UC. For positive remarks, the main effect of condition was significant, indicating that at follow-up, parents of youth in CBP made significantly more positive remarks as compared to parents of youth in UC. Results are discussed in terms of gender differences and the family environment and the impact of an adolescent-focused intervention on parents’ attitudes about their children.