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

Chapter V: Discussion
not wait for adolescent to seek out help on their own because we know that most adolescents do
not access support services.
Anxiety Symptoms and Feel Trapped were the other two categories identified by
adolescents that were significantly associated with depressive symptomatology and can be
integrated into universal, and particularly in selective and clinical interventions. The Anxiety
Symptoms category supports previous literature indicating that depression often presents with
anxiety disorder (Compas et al., 1997). Feel Trapped advances our knowledge and may be
related to other factors such as environment or even suicidal ideations. Being cognizant of these
characteristics as being important in depressive symptomatology can facilitate in connecting and
communicating with adolescents at all three levels of practice.
Self-recognition of depression and pathways to talking to someone when depressed are
factors mediated by the affected adolescent and can be integral to informing all the initiated
interventions. The interventions need to provide continuity of support so that the adolescent does
lose focus and awareness of his or her status and feel that he or she has control of his or her
problem with depression. Hence, detecting their depression may be established just by asking
them. Adolescents have also identified social impairment as an important criterion for
depression. A key time to reach out to adolescents can be at the time when they think they need
to talk to someone.
The findings revealed that Poor Emotion Awareness was a strong contributor to
increasing vulnerability to depressive symptomatology, and that emotion awareness is an
important component of social competence, as well as the linchpin to emotion expression and
regulation. Emotion awareness can be integral to the three levels of practice, the universal,
selective, and clinical interventions. For example, universal intervention strategies such as
mental health promotion in schools or the community can integrate approaches that include
emotion awareness. Helping adolescents gain awareness of their emotions, increase their ability
to express themselves emotionally, and regulate their emotions such as anger or sadness, two
symptoms of depressive symptomatology, can be intrinsic in reducing their vulnerability to
depression. Emotion awareness approaches can parallel and build on research intervention such
as the group cognitive-behavioral intervention (Clarke et al., 1995; Clarke, Hornbrook, Lynch,
Polen, Gale, Beardslee, et al., 2001; Clarke, Hornbrook, Lynch, Polen, Gale, O'Conner, et al.,
2001; Clarke, et al., 2002). These studies are based on controlled effectiveness trials of brief,
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