how do adolescents define depression? - cIRcle - University of ...

ecognition groups, generated COAD units in the Social Impairment category and in the
Chapter IV: Results
subcategory of Sadness. Subcategories Irritability and Behavioral Disconnection contained over
30% of the students' COAD units in both sets of groups. These high percentages in both self-
recognition groups of adolescents suggest that these constructs are representative dimensions of
the adolescent depression concept as understood by these participants.
Association between Adolescent Depression Constructs and Thinking About Own Need to Talk to
Someone when Depressed
To examine adolescents' own need to talk to someone when they have ever thought
themselves to be depressed by constructs of adolescent depression, x2 tests were conducted using
one item (Appendix G) developed for this study to examine participants' self-assessed need to
talk to someone. Chi-square tests revealed that significant differences in percentages of COAD
units were found between those adolescents who thought that they needed to talk to someone
versus those participants who did not think that they needed to talk to someone in the category
Feel Trapped , X2 (1, N= 233) = 4.92, p = .03 (see Table 23).
More than 80% of the students in both groups mentioned COAD units in the category
Depressed Mood, and more than 60% in the category Social Impairment (see Table H1-10 in
Appendix H1 for complete Table results). More than 50% of the participants in both groups
generated COAD units in the subcategory Sadness. Subcategories Irritability, Behavioral
Disconnection, and Lonely contained over 30% of the students' COAD units in both groups.
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