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Antecedents of Treatment Resistant Depression in Children Victimized by Peers

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Abstract

Children victimized by peers are at increased risk of ongoing depression. This study investigates treatment resistant depression in children victimized by peers, following participation in a targeted cognitive behavioral family intervention. The sample comprised 39 children aged 6–12 years with elevated depression compared with a general sample, prior to the intervention. Six months after the intervention, 26 were no longer depressed and 13 were still depressed. This study investigated the differentiation of these two groups on the basis of parenting and child factors. Children with treatment resistant depression were discriminated from other children by lower levels of peer support and facilitative parenting immediately after the intervention. It was concluded that ongoing support from parents and peers is needed to reduce the risk of ongoing depression even if victimization has been reduced. Further research could develop a comprehensive profile of children at risk of depression following peer victimization.

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Notes

  1. As Cronbach’s alpha is sensitive to the numbers of items in scales, we calculated the mean inter-item correlation for scales with only two three items which exhibited a low alpha, as recommended [49]; the optimal range for inter-item correlation (r) is between .20 and .40.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to the children and families who participated in this trial of Resilience Triple P, the data-base of which was used for analyses reported in this paper. We gratefully acknowledge the funding of the trial by the Australian Research Council supplemented by a philanthropic donation by the Butta and Filewood families. We thank local theme-park, Dreamworld for providing discount cards for families.

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  1. Parenting and Family Support Centre, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    KL Healy & MR Sanders

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Correspondence to KL Healy.

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Conflict of interest

The Triple P–Positive Parenting Program is developed and owned by The University of Queensland. The university, through its main technology transfer company Uniquest Pty Ltd, has licensed Triple P International (TPI) Pty Ltd to publish and disseminate Triple P worldwide. Royalties stemming from published Triple P resources are distributed to the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, School of Psychology, Parenting and Family Support Centre and contributory authors. Karyn L. Healy and Matthew R. Sanders are both contributory authors of Resilience Triple P and may in future receive royalties from TPI. Karyn L. Healy is employed on occasion as a contract trainer for TPI and may, in future, be offered contract work training practitioners in Resilience Triple P. TPI is a private company and no author has any share or ownership of it. TPI had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of data, or writing of this report.

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Healy, K., Sanders, M. Antecedents of Treatment Resistant Depression in Children Victimized by Peers. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 48, 107–119 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-016-0658-z

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