Cognitive—Behaviour Therapy with Depressed Primary School Children: A Cautionary Note

Thirty-one children, aged 7 to 11 years, were selected on the basis of depressive symptomatology over a two week period, as assessed by self-report questionnaires and a diagnostic interview. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups, namely Social Competence Training (SCT), Attention Placebo Control (APC) and No Treatment Control (NTC). Intervention was conducted on a group basis for eight, weekly sessions. The results indicated a decline in depression scores during the treatment period for subjects in all conditions, and this continued during the two month follow-up period to within the normal range. The SCT programme did not produce significantly greater reductions in depression than either the APC or NTC conditions and was not effective in producing improvements on measures of social competence.