Teachers or Psychologists: Who Should Facilitate Depression Prevention Programs in Schools?

Abstract

The current study evaluates a depression prevention program for adolescents led by psychologists vs. teachers in comparison to a control. The universal school-based prevention program has shown its efficacy in several studies when implemented by psychologists. The current study compares the effects of the program as implemented by teachers versus that implemented by psychologists under real-life conditions. A total of 646 vocational track 8th grade students from Germany participated either in a universal prevention program, led by teachers (n = 207) or psychologists (n = 213), or a teaching-as-usual control condition (n = 226). The design includes baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up (at 6 and 12 months post-intervention). The cognitive-behavioral program includes 10 sessions held in a regular school setting in same-gender groups and is based on the social information-processing model of social competence. Positive intervention effects were found on the change in girls’ depressive symptoms up to 12 months after program delivery when the program was implemented by psychologists. No such effects were found on boys or when program was delivered by teachers. The prevention program can successfully be implemented for girls by psychologists. Further research is needed for explanations of these effects.

The Effectiveness and Sustainability of a Universal School-Based Programme for Preventing Depression in Chinese Adolescents: A Follow-Up Study Using Quasi-Experimental Design

“…However, our findings were contrary to previous studies like Wahl et al [ 17 ], which suggested that psychologists were more effective to deliver depression prevention programme in schools than schoolteachers, especially for female students. Their study showed that the depressive levels for girls were significantly lower than the teacher-led and control conditions at 12-month follow up.…”

“…The follow-up period could also be extended to a longer time (e.g. 6–12 months) to explore the longer-term effects of the LPD programme as it was suggested that the intervention was taking place from baseline to post-intervention, any intervention effect might only manifest after the intervention [ 17 ]. From a recent meta-analysis conducted by Stice and colleagues on depression prevention programmes, they found that at least 6 months were needed for positive outcomes to be achieved [ 47 ].…”

“…We examined the effectiveness of the programme in reducing depressive symptoms and explored the sustainability of such school-based prevention programmes by examining the changes in outcomes between classes led either by mental-health professionals or teachers. We reasoned that if teachers could be as effective as mental-health professionals in implementing programmes of this sort, there would be a much higher chance for such programmes to be sustained at the participating schools, especially when funding for such programmes was not available; though previous similar studies seemed to find stronger effects when programmes were implemented by mental-health professionals but much weaker effects when they were implemented by teachers [ 17 ]. The Wahl et al study [ 17 ] had reviewed the literature about the use of psychologists or teachers to be the instructors of school-based prevention programmes for depression and highlighted the need to have direct comparison of the effects between psychologist-led and teacher-led programme for preventing depression.…”

“…We reasoned that if teachers could be as effective as mental-health professionals in implementing programmes of this sort, there would be a much higher chance for such programmes to be sustained at the participating schools, especially when funding for such programmes was not available; though previous similar studies seemed to find stronger effects when programmes were implemented by mental-health professionals but much weaker effects when they were implemented by teachers [ 17 ]. The Wahl et al study [ 17 ] had reviewed the literature about the use of psychologists or teachers to be the instructors of school-based prevention programmes for depression and highlighted the need to have direct comparison of the effects between psychologist-led and teacher-led programme for preventing depression. More evidence about the effectiveness of different kinds of instructors would help stakeholders to decide appropriate strategies for implementing school mental health programmes.…”

Initial Findings from a Novel School-Based Program, EMPATHY, Which May Help Reduce Depression and Suicidality in Youth

“…Given that in the present study it was used in a different and truncated manner, and administered by a different group of individuals, than those who have previously been shown to deliver it effectively, it cannot be considered to have been adequately tested in the present study. That universal interventions may be more effective when delivered by psychologists has been suggested from other studies [ 89 ], means that we are uncertain what our negative findings may indicate. Determining the relative importance of this aspect of the program will be required in future studies, and most importantly it is necessary to study the effectiveness of the full 16-session program.…”