Achievement goals and adolescent depression: implications for school-based interventions

Schools have long been recognised as an opportune setting to promote mental health and wellbeing because they provide wide reach and broad access to programmes aiming to prevent mental health issues. 1 Werner-Seidler A Spanos S Calear AL et al. School-based depression and anxiety prevention programs: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Psychol Rev. 2021; 89: 102079 Crossref Scopus (66) Google Scholar Traditionally, school-based prevention programmes have grappled with low uptake and limited efficacy when directly targeting psychological factors through interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy 2 Andrews JL Birrell L Chapman C et al. Evaluating the effectiveness of a universal eHealth school-based prevention programme for depression and anxiety, and the moderating role of friendship network characteristics. Psychological Med. 2023; 53: 5042-5051 Crossref Scopus (12) Google Scholar and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. 3 Kuyken W Ball S Crane C et al. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness training compared with normal school provision in reducing risk of mental health problems and promoting well-being in adolescence: the MYRIAD cluster randomised controlled trial. Evid Based Ment Health. 2022; 25: 99-109 Crossref PubMed Scopus (51) Google Scholar Suggestions to develop and deliver indirect prevention programmes 4 Cuijpers P Indirect prevention and treatment of depression: an emerging paradigm?. Clin Psychol Eur. 2021; 3: e6847 Crossref Scopus (21) Google Scholar which target modifiable risk factors, such as sleep health, nutrition, physical activity, and alcohol use, have also showed limited benefit. 5 Champion KE Newton NC Gardner LA et al. Health4Life eHealth intervention to modify multiple lifestyle risk behaviours among adolescent students in Australia: a cluster-randomised controlled trial. Lancet Digit Health. 2023; 5: e276-ee87 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Google Scholar A common aspect of these programmes is they do not target factors intrinsically linked to the school environment. Poor engagement might be because these programmes are of little immediate relevance when considering the school context in which they are being delivered. In The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, Thomas Steare and colleagues 6 Steare T Lewis G Lange K Lewis G The association between academic achievement goals and adolescent depressive symptoms: a prospective cohort study in Australia. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2024; (published online April 17.) Google Scholar identified a potentially promising novel target that is highly relevant to the school environment—achievement goals. The association between academic achievement goals and adolescent depressive symptoms: a prospective cohort study in AustraliaDepressive symptoms in adolescents were associated with their achievement goals, which could be targetable risk factors for future trials to investigate whether school-based interventions that aim to enhance factors consistent with mastery goals (ie, learning skills and understanding the subject, rather than assessing competence in comparison to peers) could prevent depression in adolescents. Full-Text PDF Open Access