The main aim of this investigation is to study depression in adolescence in the Portuguese population, identifying context variables and psychological processes that characterize it. Following this preliminary study, a new group intervention protocol is developed and applied to depressed adolescents, randomly placed in the experimental condition and in the control condition (treatment as usual condition). The results of this intervention are further evaluated and monitored every six months, in a two-year follow-up period. This investigation will be an important step in the understanding of Depression, by focusing on an early stage of its development and extending the follow-up for more than a year. It will also have the added value of the construction of a manualized intervention protocol, which will be available to the therapeutic community.
