TY - JOUR
T1 - Preventing Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Adolescents
T2 - A Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
AU - Tang, Xinfeng
AU - Jia, Siming
AU - Zhuang, Xiaoyu
AU - Wong, Daniel Fu Keung
N1 - The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by Major Innovation & Planning Interdisciplinary Platform for the “Double-First Class” Initiative, Renmin University of China; New Faculty Start-Up Grant (22XNKJ27), Renmin University of China.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2024/5
Y1 - 2024/5
N2 - Purpose: Depressive symptoms are prevalent among Chinese adolescents. However, there is a lack of effective prevention programs to reduce depressive symptoms. Methods: A pilot cluster randomized controlled trial was implemented in a sample of senior secondary school adolescents. Participants in the intervention group (N = 148) received a 6-week universal prevention course, whereas the control group (N = 131) received a routine course focusing on career development. Results: The linear mixed models showed that the group × time interaction was significant for depressive symptoms measured by DASS-21 (F(2, 550) = 5.72, p =.003) and marginally significant for that measured by SMFQ (F(2, 549) = 2.41, p =.09). Likewise, the level of anxiety and stress were significantly reduced after the program, but not maintained in the follow-up. Conclusions: This pilot study showed that a universal prevention program is promising in reducing adolescent depressive symptoms.
AB - Purpose: Depressive symptoms are prevalent among Chinese adolescents. However, there is a lack of effective prevention programs to reduce depressive symptoms. Methods: A pilot cluster randomized controlled trial was implemented in a sample of senior secondary school adolescents. Participants in the intervention group (N = 148) received a 6-week universal prevention course, whereas the control group (N = 131) received a routine course focusing on career development. Results: The linear mixed models showed that the group × time interaction was significant for depressive symptoms measured by DASS-21 (F(2, 550) = 5.72, p =.003) and marginally significant for that measured by SMFQ (F(2, 549) = 2.41, p =.09). Likewise, the level of anxiety and stress were significantly reduced after the program, but not maintained in the follow-up. Conclusions: This pilot study showed that a universal prevention program is promising in reducing adolescent depressive symptoms.
KW - adolescent
KW - depressive symptoms
KW - randomized controlled trial
KW - secondary schools
KW - universal prevention
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165429540&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/10497315231189179
DO - 10.1177/10497315231189179
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85165429540
SN - 1049-7315
VL - 34
SP - 360
EP - 371
JO - Research on Social Work Practice
JF - Research on Social Work Practice
IS - 4
ER -
