Change in caregiver depression in response to parent training: genetic moderation of intervention effects

A previous report in the Journal of Family Psychology (S. R. H. Beach et al., 2008) described the results of a randomized prevention trial contrasting families who participated in the Strong African American Families Program (SAAF, a preventive intervention for rural African American parents and their 11-year-olds) with control families. This brief report examines a novel contextual variable, child's genetic risk status for negative affect and poor self-control, as a moderator of treatment effects on caregiver's depression. Genetic data were obtained from (N = 109) youths' saliva samples. The primary study hypothesis of differential program impact on caregiver depression as a function of youth genetic risk was confirmed. Among caregivers with initially elevated scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies--Depression Scale (L. S. Radloff, 1977), SAAF participation was associated with greater impact on depressive symptoms among those whose children were at genetic risk, suggesting that effect size estimates based on full samples may underestimate the impact of prevention programs on at-risk subgroups, whose response is particularly important to understand and to target.