Efficacy of Peer-group Support on Resilience and Self-esteem of Adolescents with Parents with Mood Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Over 21% of children live in households where at least one parent has a mental illness. Peer-group support is one of the programs designed for children to protect them from the consequences of parents’ mental diseases and aims to increase children’s knowledge of mental illnesses and strengthen their adaptability. Objectives: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of peer-group support on the resilience and self-esteem of adolescents whose parents have mood disorders. Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted in clinics affiliated with the Kashan University of Medical Sciences on adolescents aged 12 - 18 years whose parents suffered from mood disorders. The participants were divided into the intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, a psychiatric assistant held 90-minute sessions every week for eight consecutive weeks. Participants in both groups answered two questionnaires (Connor and Davidson Resilience and Rosenberg Self-Esteem) before and after the intervention. Results: Based on our results, except for the subscale of resilience: trust in individual instincts, there was no significant difference in the scores obtained by the adolescents in the two study groups after the intervention; however, the scores obtained showed elevation compared to the baseline. Participants felt more relieved and reported an increase in their awareness of mental illnesses after participating in peer-group sessions. Conclusions: Peer-group support for eight weeks increased the self-esteem and resilience scores of adolescents with parents with mood disorders. However, these increases were not statistically significant, requiring studies with larger sample sizes to obtain more accurate measurements.