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

ABSTRACT
Depression in adolescents is a ubiquitous mental health problem presenting ambiguities,
uncertainties, and diverse challenges in its conceptualization, presentation, detection, and
treatment. Despite the plethora of research on adolescent depression, there exists a paucity of
research in regards to obtaining information from the adolescents themselves. In a mixed
method, cross-sectional study, adolescents (N= 332) in grades 8 and 11 provided their
conceptions of depression. Adolescents' self-recognition of depression was examined in
association with depressive symptomatology and reported pathways to talking to someone.
Adolescents' social and emotional competence was also examined in association with severity of
their depressive symptomatology.
Developed categories and subcategories of adolescent depression were guided by the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for Major
Depressive Episode (MDE) (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000). Adolescents'
definitions of depression were dominated by subjective, holistic interpretations and add new
information and depth to the previous research on adolescent depression. Depressed Mood and
Social Impairment were the core categories, both contained intricate subcategories. The
frequencies of these constructs provide a map of the themes and subthemes that pervade
adolescents' personal philosophies regarding adolescent depression.
About half of the adolescents who self-recognized depression within two weeks (45%),
qualify into screened depression (Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale -2" version [RADS-2];
Reynolds, 2002) criteria based on the DSM-IV-TR for MDE (APA, 2000). However, this study's
findings showed that the mean for screened Depression Total Score (RADS-2; Reynolds, 2002)
was significantly higher in those adolescents who self-recognized versus those who did not
self-recognize depression. The majority of lifetime self-recognizers of depression thought that
they needed to talk to someone and reported that they talked to someone when feeling depressed.
Poor Emotion Awareness was a strong contributor to increasing vulnerability to
depressive symptomatology.
This study provides new theoretical insights regarding the concept and detection of
adolescent depression, and links between social and emotional competence and depressive
symptomatology. These findings extend previous research (APA, 2000), provide new
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