title: Prevention of Depression in Childhood and Adolescence.
abstract: This article discusses strategies and programs used to prevent depression in children and adolescents. It describes the rationale for depression prevention and discusses prevention approaches in schools and other settings, highlighting examples of programs that have been empirically evaluated. Prevention effects are small but significant, comparable or greater in magnitude than adolescent prevention programs for other issues, including substance use and human immunodeficiency virus. Future research should include rigorous design features, including attention control groups, allocation concealment, larger sample sizes, longer follow-up assessments, and theory-driven tests of moderation and mediation, and should test larger-scale implementation of prevention programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway, Room 853, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Electronic address: Tmendel1@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Tamar
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mendelson
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Social Sciences, Institute for Public Health and Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Rubloff Building, 6th Floor, 750 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
authors.forename: S Darius
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Tandon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services; D003863:Depression / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D012572:School Health Services
keywords: Adolescents; Children; Depressive disorder; Depressive symptoms; Intervention; Prevention