Some depression prevention programs may not help Black youth

More race-conscious therapeutic options needed, study finds

2025-03-24

(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON – A depression prevention program that has helped white youth wasn’t effective for Black youth, raising concerns about the need for more research to help racially diverse groups, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

“I was very surprised that we couldn’t help Black youth as much as white youth, and we don’t know why there was such a profound difference in the outcomes.” said lead researcher Patrick Pössel, Dr. rer. soc., a professor of counseling psychology at the University of Louisville.

Pössel and some colleagues in Germany developed the LARS&LISA depression prevention program about 25 years ago, which was implemented successfully in schools in Germany and later in Tennessee.

The current study, published online in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, included 425 freshman students (57% Black, 43% white) in a Louisville, Kentucky, high school serving primarily low-income students. Half of the students were in a control group while the other half participated in the 10-week LARS&LISA program.

The LARS&LISA program, which includes vignettes with two characters named Lars and Lisa, uses group sessions designed to build motivation through personal goal setting followed by aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy. Students are encouraged to recognize unhelpful thoughts and replace them with more helpful thoughts. In addition, they learn about the pros and cons of assertive, aggressive, passive-aggressive and withdrawing behaviors. They also practice the skills needed to form new social networks.

The students completed questionnaires about depressive symptoms before and after the LARS&LISA program and in a follow-up survey four months later. White youth who participated in the program reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms after completing the program and at the follow-up period. However, Black youth in the program didn’t differ from the control group, with no significant benefits found after completing the program or at the follow-up period.

The study couldn’t determine why the program was unsuccessful for Black youth so more research is needed, not only on that issue but to identify whether other depression treatment programs or models may experience the same shortcomings, Pössel said.

“Psychological theories and treatment programs are largely developed based on white, middle-class, female American clients or college students in psychology courses,” Pössel said. “We need to take a step back and examine the consequences of these limitations. It’s essential to be attentive to cultural and racial differences and not assume there’s a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Other researchers found similar concerns with another youth depression prevention program that is based on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. That study found the Penn Resiliency Program helped white and Latino youth but showed no significant effects on the depressive symptoms for Black youth. Other studies have found that Black youth’s experiences with racism may put them at higher risk of depression, anxiety and suicide.

In the current study, the participants were from one high school in Louisville, Kentucky, who participated in the LARS&LISA program so the findings may not be generalizable across the United States or to other youth depression prevention programs. Only students who identified as white or Black were included in the analysis so there were no findings for other racial groups.

Article: “Equity and Inclusion in Prevention: Depression Prevention in Black and White American Youth,” Patrick Pössel, Dr. rer. soc., and Hayley D. Seely, PhD, University of Louisville, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, published online March 24, 2025.

Contact: Patrick Pössel, Dr. rer. soc., may be contacted at patrick.possel@louisville.edu.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

White-collar crimes: ‘Fall from grace’ and the stigma of reentry into society

2025-03-24

People convicted of federal white-collar crimes come from different social and demographic backgrounds compared to those convicted of other offenses. Typically older and from the middle class, white-collar offenders face unique challenges during reentry into society. Yet, research on how social class influences their reintegration remains scarce. A study by Florida Atlantic University, in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati, explores these challenges, focusing on how stigma, social background and emotional factors impact white-collar offenders as they transition into society ...

Engineers develop a better way to deliver long-lasting drugs

2025-03-24

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT engineers have devised a new way to deliver certain drugs in higher doses with less pain, by injecting them as a suspension of tiny crystals. Once under the skin, the crystals assemble into a drug “depot” that could last for months or years, eliminating the need for frequent drug injections. This approach could prove useful for delivering long-lasting contraceptives or other drugs that need to be given for extended periods of time. Because the drugs are dispersed in a suspension before injection, they can be administered through a narrow needle that is easier for patients to tolerate. “We showed that we can have very controlled, sustained delivery, ...

MIT scientists engineer starfish cells to shape-shift in response to light

2025-03-24

Life takes shape with the motion of a single cell. In response to signals from certain proteins and enzymes, a cell can start to move and shake, leading to contractions that cause it to squeeze, pinch, and eventually divide. As daughter cells follow suit down the generational line, they grow, differentiate, and ultimately arrange themselves into a fully formed organism. Now MIT scientists have used light to control how a single cell jiggles and moves during its earliest stage of development. The team studied the motion of egg cells produced by starfish — an organism that scientists have long used as a classic model for ...

Research spotlight: A generalized epilepsy network derived from brain abnormalities and deep brain stimulation

2025-03-24

Frederic L.W.V.J. Schaper, MD, PhD, director of Epilepsy Network Mapping at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, is the senior author of a paper published in Nature Communications, “A generalized epilepsy network derived from brain abnormalities and deep brain stimulation.” How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? Generalized epilepsy has traditionally been considered a seizure of the ‘whole brain.’ However, new research has challenged this longstanding idea, since carefully targeting specific brain areas through deep brain stimulation ...

IMDEA Networks revolutionizes 6G networks with DISCO6G project: real-time communication and sensing

2025-03-24

IMDEA Networks has begun its participation in DISCO6G, an innovative project that will transform next-generation mobile networks, in collaboration with UC3M, UAM, and UPM and funded by the Madrid Regional Government. Its focus on Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) enables network infrastructures not only to transmit information but also to function as distributed real-time sensors. "DISCO6G represents a paradigm shift, as it turns the network into a system capable of detecting its environment while ...

Do-it-yourself box filter clears the air of indoor pollutants

2025-03-24

SAN DIEGO, March 24, 2025 — When wildfires threaten people’s communities, human health is impacted far beyond the inferno. Residual smoke distributes on the breeze, infiltrating homes, schools and offices. To help people protect themselves and their families, researchers have developed a low-cost, durable, do-it-yourself (DIY) air cleaner that works as well as more expensive HEPA filters to clear indoor air of pollutants such as smoke and possibly limit the impact of airborne disease spread. Richard Corsi, dean of the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) College of Engineering, will present results from his ...

Twice as many men recover erectile function after improved prostate cancer surgery

2025-03-24

A technique to improve the precision of prostate cancer surgery means that almost twice as many men preserve their erectile function compared to those undergoing standard surgery, according to results from a clinical trial led by researchers from UCL and UCLH. The results of the NeuroSAFE PROOF trial, presented at the 2025 European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress in Madrid and published in The Lancet Oncology, raise the prospect of major quality of life improvements for men undergoing surgery for prostate cancer, which can often result in erectile ...

Childhood tuberculosis cases up by 26% in the EU/EEA

2025-03-24

New data published by ECDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe [1] show that with almost 39 000 reported tuberculosis cases in 2023, the 29 European Union and European Economic Area (EU/ EEA) countries continue to see increases in TB notifications. Given that young children have an increased risk of developing tuberculosis disease during the first year after infection, childhood TB serves as a marker for ongoing transmission within a community. The new data for 2023 indicate that children and adolescents under the age of 15 accounted for ...

Study shows almost all people claiming Universal Credit struggle to afford to eat properly

2025-03-24

A new study has shown that almost all people claiming Universal Credit aren’t able to eat properly, with many never eating fruit or vegetables, and a significant proportion regularly not eating for whole days at a time, leading to deficiencies in vital nutrients. The Benefits and Nutrition Study (BEANS) was led by the University of Nottingham’s Division of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics to examine food insecurity among people who claim Universal Credit. Their findings, published in the European Journal of Nutrition, show that 85% of those in receipt of Universal Credit are food ...

Fatty liver linked to increased risk of death from several diseases

2025-03-24

A comprehensive study from Karolinska Institutet shows that people with fatty liver disease have almost twice the mortality rate of the general population. They have an increased risk of dying from both liver diseases and common diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to the study published in The Journal of Hepatology. It is estimated that one in five people in Sweden has fatty liver disease known as MASLD (metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease), and globally it may be as many as one in four. The disease is caused by overweight or obesity and is characterised by an excessive ...

Some depression prevention programs may not help Black youth

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: