There are numerous individual, familial, and environmental factors that impact the onset of depressive disorders in youth. This article presents an overview of these factors and describes our own research evaluating a possible model of how disturbances in family functioning could lead to the development of depression in youth. Given that families are often implicated in the development and maintenance of depressive disorders in youth, it has been argued that maximally effective treatments for youth should include families. Thus, a review of empirically evaluated treatments that involve parental/familial participation for youth with depression is presented. These treatments vary widely in number of meetings, format, and content. Finally, it is proposed that the greatest benefit to including a parent or family component is improving the maintenance of treatment effects. To support this hypothesis, data from one of our own investigations is presented.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition that affects many individuals, especially those who served in the military. Children are especially at risk for experiencing a variety of negative biological, behavioral, social, and psychological effects due to having a parent affected by PTSD. This review has 4 aims: to present a description of the effect of parental PTSD on functioning in children, outline 2 different theories of transmission of PTSD from parents to children, provide an account of researched interventions, and describe the need for future research. An emphasis is given to the negative psychosocial effects on children who have a parent suffering from PTSD after military deployment.

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