A randomised controlled trial of a family-group cognitive-behavioural (FGCB) preventive intervention for the children of parents with depression: short-term effects on symptoms and possible mechanisms

Abstract

Objective Parental depression is one of the biggest risk factors for youth depression. This parallel randomized controlled trial evaluates the effectiveness of the German version of the family-group-cognitive-behavioral (FGCB) preventive intervention for children of depressed parents. Methods Families with (i) a parent who has experienced depression and (ii) a healthy child aged 8–17 years (mean = 11.63; 53% female) were randomly allocated (blockwise; stratified by child age and parental depression) to the 12-session intervention (EG; n = 50) or no intervention (CG; usual care; n = 50). Self-reported (unblinded) outcomes were assessed immediately after the intervention (6 months). We hypothesized that CG children would show a greater increase in self-reported symptoms of depression (DIKJ) and internalising/externalising disorder (YSR/CBCL) over time compared to the EG. Intervention effects on secondary outcome variables emotion regulation (FEEL-KJ), attributional style (ASF-KJ), knowledge of depression and parenting style (ESI) were also expected. Study protocol (Belinda Platt, Pietsch, Krick, Oort, & Schulte-Körne, 2014) and trial registration (NCT02115880) reported elsewhere. Results We found significant intervention effects on self-reported internalising ($$\eta_{p}^{2}$$ η p 2 = 0.05) and externalising ($$\eta_{p}^{2}$$ η p 2 = 0.08) symptoms but did not detect depressive symptoms or parent-reported psychopathology. Parental depression severity did not modify these effects. Both groups showed equally improved knowledge of depression ($$\eta_{p}^{2}$$ η p 2 = 0.06). There were no intervention effects on emotion regulation, attributional style or parenting style. Conclusion The German version of the FGCB intervention is effective in reducing symptoms of general psychopathology. There was no evidence that the mechanisms targeted in the intervention changed within the intervention period.

A randomized controlled trial of a preventive intervention for the children of parents with depression: mid-term effects, mediators and moderators

“…A qualitative evaluation revealed generally high levels of acceptance of GuG-Auf [22]. A previous manuscript reported positive effects of the intervention on self-reported internalizing and externalizing symptoms in the short-term (T2) using data from the oldest child from each family [23]. No evidence of group-based change in potential mediators nor of moderation by parental depression severity was found.…”

“…Participants in the EG received the GuG-Auf intervention. Details of the intervention, including treatment delity and acceptance, are described elsewhere [22,23]. The intervention takes place over six months and contains 12 sessions (eight weekly followed by four monthly) each two hours long.…”

“…The analyses reported here are based on apriori hypotheses generated prior to commencing the trial and independent of the analyses of the T1-T2 data [23]. Since the original trial of FGCB found a signi cantly lower incidence of depression at 24 months in the EG (13%) versus the CG (26%) [16], our rst hypothesis was that at T4, more children in the CG would have a diagnosis of depression than in the EG.…”

“…The necessary sample size was exceeded (n = 100). Full details of the randomization procedure and sample size calculation are provided elsewhere [23].…”

“…Families were recruited (largely through public advertisements) between July 2014 and October 2017. Recruitment of the sample is described in more detail elsewhere [23]. Follow-up data were collected between August 2015 and February 2019.…”