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

constructs reflect overt characteristics associated with a less mature level of cognitive
Chapter V: Discussion
development and approaching puberty, which coincides with the younger age in grade 8.
Association of Depressive Symptomatology to Constructs of Adolescent Depression
Depressed adolescents had significantly higher percentages of their COAD in the
constructs Inner Pain, Feel Trapped, Anxiety Symptoms, and Anxiety/Stressed. Inner Pain is a
distinct construct which contrasts the criteria found in previous literature including the
DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000). Inner Pain seems unique to depressed adolescents' experience of the
condition and different from present DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) symptoms of Depressed Mood
such as sadness or somatic complaints. The Inner Pain that adolescents may be defining is closer
to the type of pain they are experiencing. Feel Trapped, another construct revealed in
adolescents' COAD, is not found in the literature in connection with depressive
symptomatology. Adolescents who feel trapped may feel so ensnared in their environment that
this thinking may precede suicidal ideation.
Anxiety Symptoms reflect the literature findings where anxiety disorder often
accompanies depressive symptomatology (APA, 2000; Compas et al., 1997; Compas &
Oppedisano, 2000). Perhaps depressed adolescents' COAD in the construct Anxiety Symptoms
and the condition of being stressed or anxious may be connected to their vulnerability and link
with depressive symptomatology.
The change in the decreased percentage of adolescents screened as "Depressed" who
provided definitions in Social Impairment suggests that, in the process of destabilization to
depressive symptomatology, it may be more difficult for the adolescent to distinguish social
characteristics when they are depressed. Just over half the "Depressed" adolescents provided
their COAD in this construct, yet the majority of the "Not depressed" students contributed their
definitions in Social Impairment. This extends even further to Aggression/Bullied, where not one
"Depressed" adolescent was able to provide a COAD in this construct. Perhaps depressed
adolescents are in a state of disequilibration or possibly a fixed-type of state based on their levels
of maturation and social interaction in the way they represent themselves, in their relationships,
and their social world. Being anxious and stressed can fixate the individual to concern himself or
herself with their own state of anxiousness or being stressed, separating them from their context
of relationships or their social world.
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