M.A. (Social psychology) / The purpose of this study was to determine whether parental rejection and a characteristic attributional style contribute to childhood depression. After a review of existing literature on the relationship between depression,parental rejection and attributional style, it was hypothesized that parental rejection and attributional style would affect childhood depression, and therefore contribute to childhood depression. In order to test the hypothesis, children and their parents were tested. Out of the initial sample, 50 depressed and 50 non-depressed children as well as their parents undergone further tests. The tests used in this study were the CDI, DSRS, PPI and the KASTAN for the children, and the BDI, ASQ and the PARI for the parents. The results of this study indicated that parental rejection does contribute to childhood depression. There was, however, not much support provided by the data for the contribution of a characteristic attributional style to childhood depression. This would imply that further research in this area is necessary.

This study examined British Columbia elementary school counsellors' perceptions in relation to assisting depressed students, including: (a) their knowledge about depression; (b) their ideal role; (c) their current role; (d) their current practices; (e) barriers to assisting depressed students; and (f) factors which would help them to better assist these students. A questionnaire specifically designed for this study was mailed to 333 elementary school counsellors, and 248 (74.5%) were completed and returned. The percentages of counsellors who perceived various functions as part of their current and ideal roles were calculated, as were the percentages who engaged in various counsellor activities, and indicated factors which would help them to better assist depressed students. Sample means and standard deviations were calculated for the extent to which various factors were barriers to assisting depressed students. Results indicated most counsellors perceived identification, referral, and prevention of student depression to be part of their ideal and current roles, and have used these functions to assist depressed students. However, respondents were divided on treating depressed students, and only slightly more than one-third had assessed students even though two-thirds perceived it as part of their ideal role. Most counsellors have been referred depressed students by teachers, and have referred students to mental health and medical professionals. Approximately one-half perceived art and play therapy to be a more effective method of treating depression. Counsellors lacked basic information on childhood depression, and more learned about it through their own initiative, rather than professional development activities. Too high a student-to-counsellor ratio and lack of time were most consistently rated as the highest barriers to assisting depressed students. Other major barriers included: priority being given to acting out students; lack of knowledge about depression, assessment techniques, and treatment strategies; and lack of community resources. Lack of a clear role policy was not perceived to be a major barrier to assisting depressed students. The most frequent recommendations for helping counsellors to assist depressed students were more information about effective treatment strategies and a lower student-to-counsellor ratio. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

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Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-133). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

Few studies have examined depression in children from an Information Processing (IP) perspective. In this thesis a number of domains of IP (known to be associated with adult depression)are examined in children and adolescents, in particular, autobiographical memory specificity in both clinical and non-clinical samples. Foremost, overgeneral memory (OGM) was found for the first time, to be characteristic of dysphoric (Study 1) and clinically depressed children (Study 2). Similarity in the extent of the OGM bias in depressed and dysphoric children was observed. OGM was also comparable across child, adolescent and adult depressed groups (Study 2). Second, OGM predicted depressive symptoms in children during a stressful life event, in the first longitudinal diathesis-stress investigation of OGM to date (Study 3). OGM was also linked for the first time to an overgeneral thinking style and to a depressive attributional style (Study 3) thereby offering possible mechanistic insight in OGM. Third, in support of Williams' (1996) developmental origins hypothesis, OGM was also demonstrated in children in residential care who had suffered significant independently verified negative life events (Study 5). OGM in these youth was positively correlated with deficits in social problem solving and facial-affect identification, in part contextualizing OGM in children alongside depresso-typical biases. Performance on the AMT also varied as a function of severity of abuse with more abused children demonstrating less OGM -a recency memorial coping strategy is proposed to account for this effect. Fourth, a new measure of EF was introduced and highlights the importance of encoding preferences in explaining 0GM (Studies I& 5). Finally, considerable attention is paid to the pattern of valence results across studies. It is noted that effects most often lie with biases in the processing of positive information and that future studies may benefit from a concentration on this aspect of depressogenic bias utilizing a developmental perspective. Several key theoretical and practical implications are carefully discussed.

Depressive symptomology was examined in this study as a function of conflict and intimate support with parents, friends, and siblings among a non-clinical sample of 223 predominately white sixth-grade early adolescents. Moreover, sixth-graders' depressive symptomology was examined as a function of conflict management self-efficacy and intimate support self-efficacy. The purpose of the present study was twofold: 1) to explore the effects of intimate support and conflict in family and friend relationships on sixth-grade early adolescent depressive symptomology, 2) to determine whether poor conflict management skills self-efficacy and poor intimate support self-efficacy are linked with depressive symptomology in sixth-grade early adolescents. Friend relationship qualities had little impact on depression in sixth-graders. However, the presence of conflict and deficits in family intimate support, especially from parents, was associated with increased depression. Increased levels of depression also corresponded with lower ratings of conflict management self-efficacy and intimate support self-efficacy. Moreover, relationship difficulties combined with self-efficacy deficits to affect depression.

The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of adolescent depression in an exploratory manner. Although recent literature has attempteo to address the nature and prevalence of childhood and adolescent depression, there is a considerable lack of research within the school context. This study attempted to redress this imbalance. A sample of 20 schoo, counsellors/guidance teachers, who are members of the Transvaal Education Department Association for Counselling and Guidance participated in the study. Their role in terms of recognition and management of depression was recorded in the form of a questionnaire designed specifically for this study. A further section included individual case studies which aimed at enhancing our understanding of some of the inner conflicts experienced by adolescents who encounter depression in various forms.

Past research indicates there is a link between physiological responses and adaptive social responses to another individual's distress. Scholars have theorized that humans may be predisposed, both physiologically and behaviorally to responding to others, especially those who are in distress. Maternal depression has been associated with dysregulated emotional development and may possibly affect the physiological and behavioral responses of a neonate. The present research examined the relationship between neonates' physiological and behavioral responses to naturally generated (compared to artificial) stimuli of other neonates, as well as the role of maternal depression in the responses. Specifically, heart rate, heart period, and heart period variability were measured to assess the newborns' reaction to cries generated by both other newborns and digitally modulated sources. This study found that newborns of depressed mothers had higher heart period variability and showed less behavioral distress when hearing the cry of another infant. / by Joseph Cotler. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, page: 3557. Adviser: Arnold J. Schecter. Includes bibliographical references.

Emotional disorders of anxiety and depression have been recognized as the most prevalent mental disorders in children and adolescents. High rates of co-morbidity between anxiety and depression have been reported in both adults and youths. Clark and Watson (1991) proposed a tripartite model to explain both the overlap and distinctiveness of anxiety and depression. In that model, negative affectivity (NA) is experienced in both anxiety and depression; lack of positive affectivity (PA) is specific to depression; and high physiological hyperarousal (PH) is unique to anxiety. Two decades of research among adults have supported the utility of the tripartite model. However, its applicability to children and adolescents has been studied less, and the results have been controversial. This controversy could be caused by two main issues. First, early youth research on the tripartite components has had to borrow adult measures to represent the tripartite constructs. Second, even after child-specific measures for the tripartite constructs were developed, relatively few studies have examined all three tripartite components together. In particular, PH has received less attention than NA and PA. The present study addresses these issues. First, this study assesses all three components of the tripartite model among Chinese children and adolescents in Hong Kong schools. A deliberate attempt is made to use measures of the tripartite constructs that are specific to children in order to improve the construct validity of the measurements. Finally, special attention is paid to the differential utility of the PH construct. Results partially supported the Clark and Watson’s tripartite model (1991). NA is a common component to both anxiety and depression. However, both PA and PH are also common components to both anxiety and depression. In addition, high correlations were found among anxiety, depression, and PH. These results tend to suggest more intricate relationships among anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. To conclude, this study suggests an alternative transdiagnostic approach to the tripartite model, which emphasizes clustering of anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. / published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology