Thirty-seven families who had a child between the ages of 8 and 15
(mean age = 12.0 years) and had at least one parent who had
experienced a recent episode of affective disorder were assigned
randomly to one of two psychoeducational interventions. The
interventions (clinician-facilitated or lecture-group discussion) were
designed to prevent childhood depression and related problems through
decreasing the impact of related risk factors and encouraging
resiliency-promoting behaviors and attitudes. They were similar in
content but differed in the level of the children's involvement
and the degree to which the families' individual life experiences
were linked to the educational material. Assessments included standard
diagnostic and social functioning instruments and interviews designed
specifically for this project to assess behavior and attitude
change. Each parent and child was individually assessed by separate
assessors who were blind to information about the other family
members. Parent participants in both groups reported being satisfied
with the intervention. Clinician group participants reported a
significantly larger number of overall changes, as well as higher
levels of change regarding communications about the illness with their
children and increased understanding by the children of their
illness. Significantly more children in the clinician group also
reported they gained a better understanding of parental affective
illness as a result of their participation in the project.
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