Effects of a school-based intervention program for middle school adolescent girls with depression: as part of the school health services.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a school-based intervention program for middle school adolescent girls with depression. METHODS The study was a pretest-posttest repeated-measure design with a nonequivalent control group. Fifty eight students with depressive symptoms were recruited from two middle schools in Seoul, Korea. The data were collected from the intervention (n=30) and the comparison group (n=28). The research instrument was Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale. RESULTS The intervention group greatly improved from baseline to 10 weeks and then saw a slight positive change between 10 and 13 weeks. CONCLUSION The results of this research show that depression intervention programs are effective for young female adolescents. Thus the investigation has important school-based treatment implications, and should be integrated into school curricula by school health nurses for early intervention of depressive symptoms in middle school adolescent girls.