School-Based prevention and reduction of depression in adolescents: A cluster-randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness group program

Filip Raes; James W. Griffith; Katleen Van der Gucht; J. Mark G. Williams

doi:10.1007/s12671-013-0202-1

School-Based prevention and reduction of depression in adolescents: A cluster-randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness group program

Filip Raes^*, James W. Griffith, Katleen Van der Gucht, J. Mark G. Williams

^*Corresponding author for this work

Medical Social Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

146 Scopus citations

Abstract

Our objective was to conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of a group mindfulness program aimed at reducing and preventing depression in an adolescent school-based population. For each of 12 pairs of parallel classes with students (age range 13–20) from five schools (N = 408), one class was randomly assigned to the mindfulness condition and one class to the control condition. Students in the mindfulness group completed depression assessments (the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales) prior to and immediately following the intervention and 6 months after the intervention. Control students completed the questionnaire at the same times as those in the mindfulness group. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that the mindfulness intervention showed significantly greater reductions (and greater clinically significant change) in depression compared with the control group at the 6-month follow-up. Cohen's d was medium sized (>.30) for both the pre-to-post and pre-to-follow-up effect for depressive symptoms in the mindfulness condition. The findings suggest that school-based mindfulness programs can help to reduce and prevent depression in adolescents.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	477-486
Number of pages	10
Journal	Mindfulness
Volume	5
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-013-0202-1
State	Published - Sep 1 2014

Funding

Acknowledgments This research was supported by a grant from the Foundation “Go for Happiness.” Dr. Griffith was supported by the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO; GP.035.11N). We sincerely thank David Dewulf, Inge De Leeuw, and Lieven Vercauteren, and the schools and students of Belgium who participated in this project. Participating schools were: Sint-Maarten Bovenschool (Beveren-Waas), Burgerschool (Roeselare), Abdijschool van Zevenkerken (Brugge), Groenendaalcollege (Campus Sint-Jan; Merksem-Antwerpen), and Sint-Ludgardisschool (Antwerpen Stad).We would also like to acknowledge the assistance provided by Tineke Vandenbroucke and Margot Bastin. And special thank goes to Jan Toye and Ghita Kleijkers for their sincere and motivating interest.

Keywords

Adolescents
Depression
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy
Mindfulness-based stress reduction
Randomized controlled trial

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Health(social science)
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Applied Psychology

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title = "School-Based prevention and reduction of depression in adolescents: A cluster-randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness group program",

abstract = "Our objective was to conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of a group mindfulness program aimed at reducing and preventing depression in an adolescent school-based population. For each of 12 pairs of parallel classes with students (age range 13–20) from five schools (N = 408), one class was randomly assigned to the mindfulness condition and one class to the control condition. Students in the mindfulness group completed depression assessments (the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales) prior to and immediately following the intervention and 6 months after the intervention. Control students completed the questionnaire at the same times as those in the mindfulness group. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that the mindfulness intervention showed significantly greater reductions (and greater clinically significant change) in depression compared with the control group at the 6-month follow-up. Cohen's d was medium sized (>.30) for both the pre-to-post and pre-to-follow-up effect for depressive symptoms in the mindfulness condition. The findings suggest that school-based mindfulness programs can help to reduce and prevent depression in adolescents.",

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School-Based prevention and reduction of depression in adolescents: A cluster-randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness group program

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