Childhood depression is an urgent mental health issue. There is strong research to suggest that children can be buffered against developing depression by learning how to successfully process and manage adversity such as frustrations and disappointments. The idea is that if children can learn to keep those events in perspective, even learn from them, they don’t pile up or turn into a distorted world view of negative absolutes– everything is wrong, I can’t fix anything. I feel strongly that if parents learn how to coach kids in managing these bumps in the road, kids will become more resilient. I talk about these ideas in my book, Freeing Your Child from Negative Thinking. Parents can learn strategies for changing the ”commentary” or story kids tell themselves about negative events, as well as learn how to help kids ride out the wave of negative emotion.

The important message here, I think, is that there is much that can be done in a preventive fashion, so that parents aren’t just waiting for those red flags of depression, they are ensuring that their children never get to that point.