Randomized controlled trial of a friendship skills intervention on adolescent depressive symptoms

The Resourceful Adolescent Program (RAP) is a universal, school-based intervention that has been found to produce small to medium effects in the reduction of adolescent depressive symptoms. In the present study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a friendship-building skills program--the Peer Interpersonal Relatedness (PIR) program--in producing larger effects when used in conjunction with RAP.

A cluster-randomized controlled trial was used to assign whole classrooms of adolescent participants recruited from Sydney secondary schools to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) RAP-PIR, (b) RAP-placebo, or (c) assessment-only waiting-list control. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to analyze the data.

Across the intervention period, RAP did not significantly reduce depressive symptoms relative to those students not receiving this intervention. RAP followed by PIR did significantly reduce depressive symptoms relative to those students not receiving PIR. Across the 12-month follow-up, the between-group reductions in depressive symptoms were no longer significant. At follow-up, participants in the RAP-PIR condition had achieved significant increases in their school-related life satisfaction and significant increases in social functioning with peers relative to their peers in the other conditions.

The study provides preliminary support for the effectiveness of the PIR program in reducing depressive symptoms when used alongside RAP in the short term and in improving social adjustment and school-related life satisfaction in the longer term. Given the importance of social adjustment in adolescent mental well-being, the PIR program represents a potentially important addition to the prevention of depression in youth.