Prevention of Depression: A Social Information Processing Intervention

Abstract

Adolescent depression is a prevalent and recurrent problem associated with significant impairment. Although some treatments have been found to be effective in reducing depression in youth, early intervention and prevention of depression is becoming increasingly possible and successful. The goal of the current study was to test whether an intervention that targets deficits in social information processing system can prevent depressive symptoms in adolescents. The following questions were examined: (a) Does the cognitive-behavioral [CB] intervention produce significant changes in adolescentsâ social information processing? (b) Is the level of depressive symptoms at post-intervention [Time 2] predicted by the intervention, controlling for pre-treatment [Time 1] depressive symptoms and changes in social information processing from Time 1 to Time 2? Participants were 233 local high school students ranging in age from 13.90-17.58 years (Mean = 15.02 years; SD = .67). The current sample was 64% female and 74% Caucasian. The measures obtained at pre- and post-intervention were the Social Information Processing Interview (SIPI), which assesses attributions, affect, response generation, and response evaluation, and the CES-D, which measures depressive symptoms. Results indicated that intervention condition was not a significant predictor of change in the SIPI variables or in depressive symptoms; several reasons for these results are suggested. Finally, additional analyses indicated that the SIPI was an internally consistent and valid measure of social information processing in adolescents.