Preventing co-occurring depression symptoms in adolescents with conduct problems: the Penn Resiliency Program.

Children who exhibit elevated levels of conduct problems are at increased risk for developing co-occurring depression symptoms, especially during adolescence. This study tests the effectiveness of a manualized after school intervention (the Penn Resiliency Program [PRP]) for the prevention of depression symptoms among a subset of middle-school-aged students who exhibited elevated levels of conduct problems, but not depression symptoms, at the start of the study. Longitudinal analyses demonstrate that the program successfully prevented elevations in depression symptoms across early- to mid-adolescence compared to no-intervention controls.