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

Chapter V: Discussion
making a diagnosis for MDE, other studies on social adaptive patterns indicate that deficits in
social functioning are predictive of mental disorders (Schultz & Selman, 2004). Emotion and
social factors are reflected in adolescents' integral definitions of depression, Depressed Mood
and Social Impairment.
This study extends the framework of theories of social and emotional understanding by
asserting that emotion awareness seems to be the linchpin for emotion expression and regulation,
displacing growth in Social Perspective Coordination as the core contributor to lower levels of
depressive symptomatology. Since Poor Emotion Awareness is an important contributor to the
severity of depressive symptomatology, early intervention programs that stress awareness and
management of emotion may have positive implications for depression prevention.
Gender Differences in Social Perspective Coordination and Emotion Understanding as
Predictors of Severity of Depressive Symptomatology
A multiple regression analysis was conducted to further examine the relationship
dimensions of Social Perspective Coordination, emotion awareness, emotion expression, and
emotion regulation as predictors of dimensions of depressive symptomatology differentiated by
gender. Hierarchical regression analyses again revealed that increasing Poor Emotion Awareness
and reluctance to express emotion significantly predicted the severity of depressive
symptomatology for both boys and girls. Although conclusions regarding changes in emotional
development cannot be confirmed without longitudinal research, these findings show that
increasing levels of depressive symptomatology are associated with concomitant levels of Poor
Emotion Awareness and Expressive Reluctance. These findings support the correlational results
suggesting that increasing Poor Emotion Awareness and reluctance to express emotion are
associated with severity of depressive symptomatology.
When gender was differentiated, coping with sadness was the only other significant
variable that contributed inversely to the severity of depressive symptomatology in girls only.
Taken together, these findings indicate that emotion awareness can have implications for
depression prevention and early intervention programs by stressing awareness and management
of emotions for boys and girls. Also, coping with sadness can have implications for emotion-
focused, health promotion programming for girls.
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