Perceived relationships with parents among adolescent inpatients with depressive preoccupations and depressed mood

Family heritage and depression guides: family and peer views influence adolescent attitudes about depression

While adolescents tend to under-use professional mental health services for depression, they informally seek health-related information from parents and peers. In this study, we interviewed 15 adolescents to examine how the views and behaviours of others influence teens' decisions about seeking care for depression. Using a grounded theory approach, we found that teens' families, peers, and siblings contributed uniquely to teens' decisions in seeking care for depression. Families may disclose a "heritage" of depression, and their choices about disclosing family mental health issues, previous treatment, and coping strategies affected teens' understanding of depression. Peer "depression guides," who had themselves experienced depression, provided teens with advice on recognizing depression, managing stigma, and seeking care. Siblings bridged the roles of peer and family, influencing teens' choices about accessing treatment. These findings suggest that family and peers should be included during teens' depression treatment.

Self-criticism and depressive symptomatology interact to predict middle school academic achievement

Although previous research has implicated adolescent depression in academic difficulties, few studies have explored the role of cognitive/personality factors in this area. To address this gap, the present study examines the role of self-criticism in academic functioning among early adolescent students over a 1-year interval. We hypothesized and found that adolescent self-criticism and depressive symptomatology interacted to predict decreased grade point average (GPA) over time, an interaction that was found predominantly in boys. This finding illustrates the need to integrate research on personality and psychopathology into educational psychology.

Development and validation of a depression scale for Asian adolescents

Items covering both core and culture-specific facets of depression were generated based on literature review and clinical experience. They were modified following focus group discussions with depressed adolescents and adolescents in the community. The newly constructed Asian Adolescent Depression Scale (AADS) was administered to a clinical and a community sample of adolescents together with other rating scales. The AADS comprised 4 factors (negative self-evaluation, negative affect, cognitive inefficiency and lack of motivation) and demonstrated sound psychometric properties. Negative socially oriented self-evaluation and cognitive inefficiency were important in Singaporean adolescents' conceptualization of depression and are likely to be Asian culture-specific dimensions.

An interactive-synergetic approach to the assessment of personality vulnerability to depression: Illustration using the adolescent version of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire

Research on personality vulnerability to depression is characterized by a "main effect" approach, often at the expense of examining interactions among various dimensions of vulnerability. To compare the "main effect" and "interactive-synergetic" approaches, we utilized data from a longitudinal study of adolescent adjustment. Focusing on dependency, self-criticism, and efficacy, the three factors of the adolescent version of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, Schaffer, Bers, & Quinlan, 1992), we found support for the interactive-synergetic approach. Dependency and self-criticism interacted in predicting changes in depressive and internalizing symptoms (under low efficacy), and among boys-changes in internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results illuminate the synergetic interplay among dimensions of risk and resilience in clinical research and practice.

Investigating Issues Surrounding Depression in Adolescent Girls Across Ontario: A Participatory Action Research Project

This study gathered data from adolescent girls in four regions (Ottawa, North Bay, Toronto, Windsor) concerning key issues in the prevention of depression in young women. Using a participatory methodology, a team of young women worked with researchers to design and conduct focus groups with 48 adolescent girls across Ontario. Major themes emerging from the focus group data fell into five categories: (a) symptoms, (b) contributing factors, (c) alleviating depression, (d) prevention, and (e) barriers to receiving help. These findings should be considered when designing programs targeting depression in young women in order to maximize the accessibility and effectiveness of such initiatives.

The role of separation-individuation experiences and personality in predicting externalizing and internalizing dimensions of functional impairment in a rural preadolescent and adolescent sample

Studied 4th- through 8th-grade students in a rural school district (N = 382, 201 girls; M age = 12.48) who, at the end of the academic year, completed self-report measures assessing functional impairment, self-concept, reactance, and autonomy experiences in relation to parents. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a distinction between 2 aspects of autonomy: mutuality (perceptions of parents as encouraging of autonomy) and conflictual dependence (negative representations of "self-in-relation-to-parent" and related feelings of anger and shame). Path analysis findings mostly were consistent with a mediated model predicting personality from autonomy experiences and functional impairment from personality. However, conflictual dependence rather than negative self-feelings directly predicted girls' emotional difficulties. Comparisons of total effects suggested that conflictual dependence may have stronger and more consistent implications for adolescent psychopathology than mutuality. In general, significant relations between conflictual dependence and psychopathology remained significant even after controlling for a measure of negative affectivity (NA).