Risk and Prevention of Depression in Youth

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一项NIH独立科学家奖（K 02）的申请，旨在提高Pl的能力，以促进对儿童和青少年抑郁症发展过程的理解，并开发和测试旨在预防青少年抑郁症的干预措施。PI的研究计划已经从研究预测儿童和青少年抑郁症的社会心理风险因素，到研究这些风险因素作为父母和儿童精神病理学之间联系的中介的作用，再到测试针对早期研究中确定的几个风险因素的预防计划。该计划描述了三个研究项目，涉及五个不同但相关的研究。第一个项目包括两个独立的纵向研究，研究了varbus心理社会因素的贡献（例如，家庭功能障碍、社会反馈、压力）与儿童和青少年的负面认知和抑郁症的发展有关。第二个程序是由两个不同的调查是否减少父母的抑郁症作为治疗（认知行为和/或药物治疗）的结果与他们的孩子的精神病理学和功能的变化，以及这些变化是否介导的改善亲子关系，消极的认知，和/或减少紧张的生活事件。最后一个项目使用从前两个研究项目中了解到的有关风险因素的知识来测试认知行为干预，以预防青少年因父母接受抑郁症治疗而有情绪障碍风险的抑郁症，以及他们自己过去有抑郁症发作或当前的亚综合征抑郁症状。 职业发展计划的目标是扩大候选人在两个领域的技能：定量方法和预防科学。由于大多数候选人的研究是纵向的，学习最先进的统计方法（例如潜在增长曲线，线性和非线性混合效应模型，生存分析，结构方程模型）将拓宽可以用现有和新数据解决的研究问题的种类。此外，她将更新和扩大她的预防干预措施，特别是认知行为方法的知识，进一步开发和测试预防高危青少年抑郁症的方案的有效性。该K奖将允许候选人通过使用有关病因学的基本知识来解决预防抑郁症严重公共卫生状况的发作和复发的实际问题，特别是在最高风险的人群中，将实证研究与实践联系起来。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a request for an NIH Independent Scientist Award (K02) to enhance the Pl's ability to contribute to the understanding of the processes underlying the development of depressive disorders in children and adolescents and to develop and test interventions aimed at preventing depression in youth. The Pl's research program has evolved from studying psychosocial risk factors that predict depression in children and adolescents, to examining the role of these risk factors as mediators of the link between parent and child psychopathology, to testing a prevention program that targets several of the risk factors identified in the earlier studies. This proposal describes three research programs involving five different but related studies. The first program includes two separate longitudinal studies that examine the contribution of varbus psychosocial factors (e.g., family dysfunction, social feedback, stress) to the development of negative cognitions and depressive disorders in children and adolescents. The second program is comprised of two different investigations of whether decreases in parents' depression as a result of treatment (cognitive-behavioral and/or pharmacotherapy) are associated with changes in their children's psychopathology and functioning, and whether these changes are mediated by improvements in parent-child relationships, negative cognitions, and/or decreases in stressful life events. The last project uses knowledge about risk factors learned from the first two research programs to test a cognitive-behavioral intervention for preventing depression in adolescents at risk for mood disorders due to their having a parent in treatment for depression, and themselves having either a past depressive ecandidatesode or current subsyndromal depressive symptoms. The goal of the career development plan is to expand the candidate's skills in two areas: quantitative methods and prevention science. Because most of the candidate's research is longitudinal, learning state-of-the-art statistical methods (e.g. latent growth curve, linear and non-linear mixed effects models, survival analysis, structural equations modeling) will broaden the kinds of research questions that can be addressed with both existing and new data. In addition, she will update and expand her knowledge of preventive interventions, particularly cognitive-behavioral approaches, with the aim of further developing and testing the efficacy of programs for preventing depression in high-risk adolescents. This K award will allow the candidate to bridge emcandidaterical research with practice by using basic knowledge about etiology to address the practical problem of preventing the onset and recurrence of the serious public health condition of depression, particularly among those at greatest risk for the disorder.