Prevention of familial transmission of depression through a family‐oriented programme targeting parenting as well as the child's social competence

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to evaluate the prevention programme EFFEKT‐E that was designed for preschool children of depressive mothers and contains an intervention for children and for mothers. Design/methodology/approach – Research was carried out in mother‐child clinics in Germany. In total, 220 strained mothers, who were screened for elevated levels of depressive symptoms, were enrolled in the control and 186 in the training group. For evaluation, mothers rated emotional disturbance and social competence of the child as outcome measures before and after the training. Changes in parenting behaviour, perceived parental competence and parenting stress were also assessed. Findings – An effect on emotional disturbance of the child emerged ( d =0.52) in the training group. Perceived parental competence increased ( d =0.72) and parental stress decreased ( d =0.23) significantly under training. EFFEKT‐E has proven to be a valuable programme for preventing depression in offspring of mothers who feel depressed. Originality/value – The article identifies the significance of focusing on parenting as a preventive intervention in the mechanisms of familial transmission of depression and evaluation of a family‐oriented programme for young children designed to achieve this.