Primary prevention programs at the population
level, secondary prevention services for high-risk groups,
and treatment for adolescents who manifest severe forms
of depressive disorders must be delivered in a coordinated,
sequential fashion (Compas, in press). Evidence is accumulating
to indicate that interventions at all three of
these levels need to address dysfunctional cognitive processes,
skills for coping with acute and chronic stress, and
strategies to deal with interpersonal relationships and
problems. If these themes were addressed in primary and
secondary prevention programs as well as in treatment,
they would contribute to the development of a core set
of competencies for all adolescents. The groundwork for
these skills would be laid in a preventive intervention
delivered at the population level (Petersen, 1988b). Further
development of these competencies could then be
pursued in secondary prevention programs for adolescents
whose parents are suffering from clinical depression or
other sources of risk (Beardslee, 1990). Finally, for those
adolescents who warrant further intervention, these same
skills would continue to be the target in psychotherapeutic
interventions (Lewinsohn et al., 1990). Continuity of this
type across interventions could enhance the effects of our
efforts to alleviate adolescent depression at the levels of
both prevention and treatment.