Preventing Depression and Clinical Anxiety in Teenagers

This resource provides strategies for parents and carers about how to reduce the risk of developing depression or clinical anxiety in teenage children aged 12-17 years.

Select ‘Teen (aged 12-17 years)’ to access guidelines.

‘These guidelines are a general set of recommendations on how you as a parent can reduce your teenage child’s risk of developing depression or clinical anxiety. These recommendations may also be useful for parents whose teenage child is already experiencing some symptoms of depression or anxiety. We recognise that each family is unique, so you may need to adapt these strategies to your specifc situation. They were based on a systematic review of research evidence and/or the opinions of a panel of 23 international experts with a minimum of five years of experience in either clinical treatment or research involving parenting and adolescent depression or anxiety disorders.’

It includes the following topics:

• ‘You can reduce your child’s risk of developing depression and clinical anxiety’
• ‘Establish and maintain a good relationship with your teenager’
• ‘Be involved and support increasing autonomy’
• ‘Establish family rules and consequences’
• ‘Minimise conflict in the home’
• ‘Encourage supportive relationships’
• ‘Help your teenager to deal with problems’
• ‘Help your teenager to deal with anxiety’
• ‘Encourage professional help seeking when needed’
• ‘Don’t blame yourself’