Promoting resilience in children with depressive symptoms

A pilot study was conducted with the primary objective to study the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral intervention inspired by the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP; Gillham, Jaycox, Reivich, Seligman, & Silver, 1990; Seligman, Reivich, Jaycox, & Gillham, 2005), for the prevention of depression in students from primary education. The main components of the program include modifying explanatory style and resolving interpersonal problems. Results indicated that there was significant improvement from pre-test to post-test in the experimental group for children with "high depressive symptoms" compared with controls. Qualitative analysis were consistent with this trend. Conclusions in light of these results are discussed and potential directions for future research are recommended