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

Thinking About Own Need to Talk to Someone when Depressed
Chapter III: Methodology
To assess adolescents' thinking about own need to talk to someone when depressed, one
question was developed for use in the present investigation. As part of this item, a forced-choice
question, "Have you ever been so depressed that you thought you needed to: Talk to someone,"
was used to determine participants' own thought processes of self-focused attention in detecting
or self-assessing depression in self, and identifying a need to talk to someone when depressed
(Appendix G). The three values to this item comprised "yes," "no," and "I have never been
depressed." This item was developed and utilized in the analyses to bridge self-assessment of
self-recognized depression and adolescents' internal approach-oriented coping specifically via
thinking about own assessed need to talk to someone when depressed.
The thought of needing to talk to someone can be linked to other studies which have
examined internal approach-oriented coping (Herman-Stahl et al., 1995; Seiffge-Krenke &
Klessinger, 2000; Shulman et al., 1987; Walker et al., 1997). One such example of internal
coping is, "I think about the problem and try to find different solutions" (Seiffge-Krenke, 1995;
Seiffge-Krenke & Klessinger, 2000, p. 621).
Talking to Someone When Feeling Depressed
To evaluate one type of approach-oriented coping in seeking social support involving
directed voluntary action initiated by the affected individual, such as talking to someone when
feeling depressed, one question was developed for use in the present study (Appendix H). As
part of this item, a forced-choice question, "At that time of feeling depressed, did you talk to
anyone about how you were feeling" was used to determine participants' self-reported presence
or absence in talking to someone. Assessment of adolescents' responses was based on two values
("yes" or "no"). The wording of the question in the present study was partially adapted from a
previous item in the ROAD (Fuks Geddes, 1997).
Seeking social support specifically via talking to someone when feeling depressed can be
linked to other studies that have examined behavioral approach-oriented coping (Herman-Stahl
et al., 1995; Seiffge-Krenke & Klessinger, 2000; Walker et al., 1997). One such example of
active coping is "I talk right away about the problem when it appears and don't worry much"
(Seiffge-Krenke & Klessinger, 2000, p. 623).
60