Skills for adolescent WELLbeing (SWELL) 

Summary

Depression is common in young people and is associated with a range of poor outcomes (e.g. academic, quality of life). Young people who have a depressed parent are at an increased risk of experiencing depression themselves and deserve special consideration for early intervention programs.

Previous studies have found that psychological interventions that involve learning skills to support wellbeing can be effective in protecting this group of young people against depression. However, these types of programs delivered to young people are not effective if their parent is currently depressed.

In this study we aim to test a psychological intervention aimed at young people at high-risk of depression (defined as having a parent with recurrent depression and also having either had depression in the past or currently having high depression symptoms). We aim to try and optimize the effectiveness of this intervention for the young person by adding specialist treatment for parent depression when the parent is currently depressed.

This study is a randomized controlled trial which is a type of study design that can provide high-quality evidence of whether interventions are effective. This type of evidence is required to help policy makers to create healthcare services based on the best evidence.

We aim to recruit 400 parents/carers and their children aged 13-17 years. When parents are depressed at the beginning of the study, we will offer a 12-week period of treatment optimization based on current best-practice. Following that, young people (aged 13-17 years) will be randomized to either receive a psychological intervention and treatment as usual or to receive treatment as usual only. The psychological intervention will be in small groups via videocall and facilitated by a trained therapist. We will test if the intervention protects against depression and improves other outcomes like quality of life.