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Background: Several protective factors have been identified for mental health (MH) resilience in adolescent offspring of depressed parents. However, it is unclear if these effects persist into adulthood. Methods: Depressed parents and their offspring (N = 188) from the Early Prediction of Adolescent Depression study were assessed four times (mean offspring ages 12.39, 13.77, 14.82, and 23.41). Mental health resilience was examined using residual scores (better‐than‐expected mood‐, behaviour‐, or anxiety‐related MH at mean age 23 given risk exposure), and categorically as sustained good MH across adolescence and young adulthood. Results: Only 9.2% of young adults demonstrated sustained good MH. Parents of resilient individuals showed lower comorbidity (anxiety, antisocial behaviour and harmful drinking) and higher depression remission. Considering adolescent protective factors, weak evidence was observed of associations of mood‐resilience with adolescent peer‐relationship quality (β = −0.20, 95%CI:−0.36, −0.04); friendship quality (β = −0.14, 95%CI:−0.31, 0.02); risk adjustment (β = −0.16, 95%CI:‐0.34, 0.03) and dysfunctional attitudes (β = 0.18, 95%CI:0.01, 0.35). There was weak evidence of behavioural‐resilience association with parent positive expressed emotion (β = −0.15, 95%CI:−0.31, 0.02) and offspring exercise (β = −0.37, 95%CI:−0.77, 0.03). No adolescent protective factors showed an association with anxiety‐resilience. For sustained good MH, there was weak evidence of an association with inhibitory control (OR = 0.39, 95%CI:0.14, 1.07). Strong evidence was observed for associations between young adult‐reported peer relationship quality and mood‐resilience (β = −0.35, 95%CI:−0.53, −0.17), behavioural‐resilience (β = −0.33, 95%CI:−0.51, −0.14) and anxiety‐resilience (β = −0.34, 95%CI:−0.53, −0.14), while weak evidence was observed of an association of social activities with anxiety‐resilience (β = −0.51, 95%CI:−0.97, −0.06). Conclusions: We found limited evidence for the long‐lasting effects of adolescent protective factors on adult MH resilience. Social factors remained protective into young adulthood, while family factors did not. Early preventative intervention might not be sufficient to maintain good long‐term MH, and young people will likely require more prolonged support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cognitive control problems have been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of mental health problems, including depression, in adults. Studies in adolescents have been more equivocal, with some showing changes in cognitive control in adolescents with mental health problems, whereas others fail to show an association. This study examines whether adolescent mental health is associated with affective control, the application of cognitive control in affective contexts, which shows more protracted development than cognitive control. Methods: The present study investigated the association of cognitive and affective control with depressive symptomatology and self‐reported diagnostic history of mental health problems in adolescents. The study included 1929 participants (Mage = 13.89) from the Future Proofing Study (N = 6,388, 11–16 years), who completed affective (incl., affective stimuli) and/or cognitive (incl., neutral stimuli) versions of a working memory (backward digit‐span) and/or shifting (card‐sorting) task at least once within 3 weeks of assessing mental health. Results: Poorer working memory was associated with greater depressive symptomatology in adolescents (β = −0.06, p =.004), similarly across cognitive and affective control conditions (β = −0.02, p =.269). Adolescents with self‐reported diagnostic history of mental health problems had significantly poorer shifting ability in affective compared to cognitive control conditions (b = 0.05, p =.010), whereas for adolescents with no self‐reported diagnoses, shifting ability did not differ between conditions (b = −0.00, p =.649). Conclusions: The present analyses suggest that working memory difficulties, in particular, may be associated with the experience of current depressed mood in adolescents. Problems with affective shifting may be implicated in a range of mental health problems in adolescents. Given the ubiquitous need for efficient cognitive functioning in daily life, enhancing cognitive and affective control in adolescents may be a promising means of improving functioning across a range of domains, including affective functioning, and by extension, adolescent mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dramatherapy, a creative form of psychotherapy, may be a useful treatment for child and adolescent mental health. As there is a growing evidence base, this systematic review sought to identify, describe and evaluate dramatherapy with children and adolescents who were experiencing emotional distress (anxiety, depression and trauma) in order to inform future research in this area. Methods: Seven databases (PsychInfo, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, EMBASE and Cochrane) were searched for peer‐reviewed articles exploring dramatherapy as a treatment for child and adolescent emotional distress. Hand searches of relevant journals were also conducted. Two reviewers coded articles for eligibility and independently appraised papers using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools. Details relating to intervention and participant characteristics were extracted and, where data were available, effect sizes on measures relating to emotional distress were calculated. Results: Fifteen papers were included. Studies showed that dramatherapy was often delivered in schools (46%) and clinical settings (20%) and was more frequently delivered to adolescents (53%) (>11 years) than children (26%) (8–11 years). Dramatherapy was used as a treatment for diagnostically heterogeneous groups (40%), for emotional and behavioural difficulties (33%) and following a shared, traumatic, experience (20%). Seven papers reported relevant quantitative data however, just three of these studies were controlled and none were blinded. Pre‐to‐post intervention effect sizes ranged from d = 0.17 to d > 2 yet samples were small and participant response to treatment was not always consistent. The largest effects were seen in dramatherapy employed following trauma and in clinical settings. Medium to large effects were also seen in early intervention school‐based dramatherapy. Conclusion: Despite promising results with regards to the treatment of child and adolescent emotional distress, the evidence base for dramatherapy is small and methodologically flawed. Larger, methodologically robust trials should test the efficacy of dramatherapy in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]