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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. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? High school students may experience mental issues, but how to address this problem has been neglected.Psychological preventive programmes are effective to reduce depression in high school students.It is difficult to manage time and human resources to implement interventions. What this paper adds? The long‐term, low‐frequency programme was feasible in one high school.High school adolescents who completed the intervention demonstrated improved relationship maintenance skills.The programme did not decrease severity of depression. The implications of this paper: Our long‐term but low‐frequency intervention may be conducted by school nurses at lower cost than previous interventions and may improve an aspect of high school students' social skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background With a large number of children surviving cancer worldwide, numerous investigations have assessed psychological and social adjustment among childhood cancer survivors. According to these studies, it is unclear whether childhood cancer survivors successfully adjust to daily life after being discharged from hospital, especially for adolescent and young adult survivors who have unique needs and concerns. The primary aim of this study was to identify the factors underlying psychosocial difficulties faced by adolescent and young adult survivors in their day-to-day lives after being discharged from hospital. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Twenty-five childhood cancer survivors were recruited from two regional cancer institutions in Japan. Content analysis was applied to the responses. Results Nineteen attributes were extracted and classified into four categories as follows: physical difficulties, interpersonal difficulties, behavioral difficulties, and uncertainty about the future. The attributes indicated by >50% of the participants were 'I am worried about not feeling well,' 'I have difficulty continuing treatment in daily life,' 'I have difficulty moving my body,' 'I have to be absent from school or work because of illness,' and 'I am left behind academically.' Conclusions This study identified important factors of psychosocial day-to-day difficulties. Clinically, these results suggest that it is important to watch for these signs and to provide early support to survivors so that their daily life and development are not hindered by the treatment and its side-effects, and to offer long-term support focusing on individual patient characteristics such as sex, age, and cancer history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The present study evaluates the long-term effects of a universal prevention approach for depression in children. It looks into the 2- and 3-year follow-ups of previously reported postintervention and 1-year outcomes. Method One hundred and eighty-nine 3rd grade (8-9 years old) children participated in a five-session, school-based, universal prevention program designed to encourage social skills and peer support. The study was conducted from 2006 to 2009 in two public schools in Miyazaki, the south main island of Japan. Results Depressive symptoms decreased significantly from the pre to the postintervention periods, and this effect was maintained. Furthermore, children in the prevention group showed significantly lower depression than the normative sample. Conclusions This study reveals the beneficial long-term effects of a universal approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]