This study evaluated the Penn Resiliency Program's effectiveness in preventing depression when delivered by therapists in a primary care setting. Two-hundred and seventy-one 11- and 12-year-olds, with elevated depressive symptoms, were randomized to PRP or usual care. Over the 2-year follow-up, PRP improved explanatory style for positive events. PRP's effects on depressive symptoms and explanatory style for negative events were moderated by sex, with girls benefiting more than boys. Stronger effects were seen in high-fidelity groups than low-fidelity groups. PRP did not significantly prevent depressive disorders but significantly prevented depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorders (when combined) among high-symptom participants. Findings are discussed in relation to previous PRP studies and research on the dissemination of psychological interventions.

The authors investigated the effectiveness and specificity of the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP; J. E. Gillham, L. H. Jaycox, K. J. Reivich, M. E. P. Seligman, & T. Silver, 1990), a cognitivebehavioral depression prevention program. Children (N = 697) from 3 middle schools were randomly assigned to PRP, Control (CON), or the Penn Enhancement Program (PEP; K. J. Reivich, 1996; A. J. Shatté, 1997), an alternate intervention that controls for nonspecific intervention ingredients. Children's depressive symptoms were assessed through 3 years of follow-up. There was no intervention effect on average levels of depressive symptoms in the full sample. Findings varied by school. In 2 schools, PRP significantly reduced depressive symptoms across the follow-up relative to both CON and PEP. In the 3rd school, PRP did not prevent depressive symptoms. The authors discuss the findings in relation to previous research on PRP and the dissemination of prevention programs. Keywordsdepression; prevention; children; adolescence Several cognitive-behavioral interventions show promise in preventing depressive symptoms in youths (for recent reviews, see Horowitz & Garber, 2006;Merry, McDowell, Hetrick, Bir, & Muller, 2004). Among these are the Coping with Stress Course (Clarke & Lewinsohn, 1995), the Resourceful Adolescent Program (RAP; Shochet, Whitefield, & Holland, 1997), the LISA-T Program (Pössel, Horn, Groen, & Hautzinger, 2004), and the Penn Resiliency Program 1 (PRP; Gillham, Jaycox, Reivich, Seligman, & Silver, 1990). Despite this promise, however, depression prevention programs that demonstrate positive effects are rarely incorporated into school or clinical settings, and little is known about the effectiveness of most programs when delivered by the individuals who work in these settings.In addition, when these programs do work, it is usually unclear whether the cognitivebehavioral therapy skills or other nonspecific factors (e.g., time spent in a structured afterschool activity, attention from an adult, support from peers) are responsible. The majority of depression prevention studies compare cognitive-behavioral interventions with a nointervention control. Only a few studies have compared prevention programs with attention control groups or alternate interventions. Pattison and Lynd-Stevenson (2001) found that PRP did not significantly reduce or prevent depressive symptoms relative to both nointervention and attention control groups. The small sample size (N = 63) may have limited power to detect effects, however. Merry, McDowell, Wild, Bir, and Cunliffe (2004) compared RAP with a placebo control group consisting primarily of group arts and crafts activities and found some support for the efficacy of RAP relative to placebo, but the effect size was small, and effects were not found across different measures of depressive symptoms. The placebo condition used by Merry et al. controlled for several factors that are 1 PRP materials are available for use in research. Requests for the curriculum should be made to info@pennp...

No abstract

This section called "Changing Practice, Changing Schools" will feature reviews of either intervention or training programs that reflect innovative, psychologically based, empirically supported approaches to solving problems of practice. We envision this section as one that considers more systemic methods for meeting the needs of children, families, schools and communities and one that clearly communicates the variety of skills and expertise that school psychologists bring to their settings.

The amount of cancer-related information available to the general population continues to grow, yet its effects are unclear. This study extends previous cross-sectional research establishing that cancer information seeking across a variety of sources is extensive and positively associated with engaging in health-related behaviors. We studied how active information seeking about cancer prevention influenced three healthy lifestyle behaviors using a two-round nationally representative sample of adults ages 40–70 (n=1795), using propensity scoring to control for potential confounders including baseline behavior. The adjusted odds of dieting at follow-up were 1.51 [95% CI: 1.05 to 2.19] times higher for those who reported baseline seeking from media and interpersonal sources relative to non-seekers. Baseline seekers ate 0.59 [95% CI: 0.28, 0.91] more fruits/vegetable servings per day and exercised 0.36 [95% CI: 0.12 to 0.60] more days per week at one-year follow-up compared to non-seekers. The effects of seeking from media and friends/family on eating fruits/vegetables and exercising were independent of seeking from physicians. We offer several explanations for why information seeking predicts healthy lifestyle behaviors: information obtained motivates these behaviors; information sought teaches specific techniques; the act of information seeking may reinforce a psychological commitment to dieting, eating fruits/vegetables, and exercising.