Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this article was to develop a school based program for depression prevention and preliminarily examine the effect in junior high school. Method: The prevention program based on cognitive behavioral procedures was developed as a school-based program. The program consisted 8 sessions and included multiple components: social supports, social skills training, relaxation, and cognitive restructuring. Twenty-two 2nd grade students (11 boys and 11 girls) in junior high school participated in the program as intervention group and 277 (140 boys and 137 girls) and 296 (155 boys and 141 girls) students were recruited as monitoring control group. Results: Significant improvements were found in social skills of relationship to teachers, social support from teachers, and friendship stressors in intervention group. After selecting matching sample showed the same level depression score to intervention group at pre intervention randomly, ANOVA (group × time) was conducted. Results found significant interactions in Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children (DSRS) and Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Analyses of simple main effects indicated that depression scores of intervention group decreased significantly and intervention group showed significant lower depressive symptoms than monitoring control group at post intervention in DSRS. In addition, calculation of effect sizes suggested that the effect of the programs maintained after 3 months follow-up. Conclusion: This study suggested effectiveness and potential application of cognitive behavioral prevention program for depression at schools as well as educational effects.
