Citation

Lapshina N, Crooks CV, Kerry A. Can. J. Sch. Psychol. 2019; 34(4): 300-316.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0829573518777154

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Mental health promotion programming in schools and community settings is an important part of a comprehensive mental health strategy. The goal of this study was to identify and explore meaningful classes of youth based on their pre- and post-intervention depression symptoms scores with 722 youth involved in a 15-week healthy relationships and mental health promotion program. We utilized latent class growth analysis to identify depression class trajectories, controlling for group clustering effects. A three-class solution identified high decreasing, moderate stable, and low stable trajectories. Gender, age, and reported experience of bullying victimization predicted trajectory class membership. The low stable class trajectory was associated with the highest positive mental health, followed by the moderate stable and the high decreasing trajectories. These results suggest that youth with the highest depression scores showed significant improvement in symptomatology over the course of the program.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescents; depression; latent class growth analysis; mental health promotion; positive mental health