The 3-year effects of a personality-targeted prevention program on general and specific dimensions of psychopathology.

This study aimed to examine the effect of a personality-targeted prevention program (Preventure) on trajectories of general and specific dimensions of psychopathology from early- to mid-adolescence. Australian adolescents (N = 2190) from 26 schools participated in a cluster randomized controlled substance use prevention trial. This study compared schools allocated to deliver Preventure (n = 13 schools; n = 466 students; M _age  = 13.42 years), a personality-targeted selective intervention, with a control group (n = 7 schools; n = 235 students, M _age  = 13.47 years). All participants were assessed for psychopathology symptoms at baseline, 6-, 12-, 24- and 36-months post-baseline. Outcomes were a general psychopathology factor and four specific factors: fear, distress, alcohol use/harms and conduct/inattention), extracted from a higher-order model. Participants who screened as 'high-risk' on at least one of four personality traits (negative thinking, anxiety sensitivity, impulsivity and sensation seeking) were included in intention-to-treat analyses. Intervention effects were examined using multi-level mixed models accounting for school-level clustering. Among high-risk adolescents, growth in general psychopathology was slower in the Preventure group compared to the control group (b = -0.07, p = 0.038) across the three years. After controlling for effects on general psychopathology, there were no significant, additional effects on the lower order factors. This study provides evidence for the effectiveness of a selective personality-targeted intervention in altering trajectories of general psychopathology during adolescence. This finding represents impacts on multiple symptom domains and highlights the potential for general psychopathology as an intervention target.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: One of the authors, Patricia J Conrod, is a developer of the Preventure program. Preventure is distributed not for profit. Prof Newton and Teesson are directors of CLIMATESchools PTY LTD a company established to distribute education resources to schools. The other authors do not have any conflicts of interests to disclose.
(Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)