Preliminary investigation of the feasibility of a long-term but low-frequency preventive intervention for depression in Japanese high schools

Aim We explored the feasibility of a long-term but low-frequency psychological preventive intervention in a high school setting. Background High school students may experience depression; psychological interventions to improve social and cognitive skills may be useful to decrease such depression. A long-term but low-frequency intervention may be feasible in this setting because of its minimal time demands and lack of need for specialist human resources Design We conducted a single-arm longitudinal descriptive study with an intervention applied six times over 2 years in one high school. Method We conducted a psychological preventive intervention with 94 high school students in one school for 2 years (April 2014 to March 2016). This intervention aimed to improve social and cognitive skills. We measured social skills, cognitive distortion, and depression five times during the 2-year period, through a self-report scale. Results/Findings Scores for maintaining relationship skills tended to increase over the 2 years. However, depression did not decrease over the intervention period. Conclusion Although our research did not include control conditions and the intervention did not decrease depression, the six-session programme for high school adolescents improved an aspect of social skills that is a preventive factor against depression.