Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (M.Psych.Clin.) - University of Queensland, 2007. / Includes bibliography.

Leung Yeuk Sin Eugenie. / "July 2004." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-237). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Submitted in full compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree of Technology: Nursing Department of Postgraduate Nursing Studies, Durban Institute of Technology, 2004. / The aim of this quasi-experimental study was to compare the effectiveness of a Nurse-facilitated cognitive group intervention, a Volunteer-led support group intervention and a standard treatment Control group on mild to moderately depressed Indian women at an urban community psychiatric clinic in KwaZulu-Natal in terms of their levels of depression and self-esteem over a three-month period. Since antidepressants alone are ineffective in the treatment of depression, the study evaluated group interventions as adjunctive treatments. The first intervention involved 15 group sessions based on Gordon’s teachings (1988a and 1988b), whilst the second intervention consisted of 15 craft-making group sessions. A purposive sample of 45 depressed women was selected and randomly allocated to the three groups. Sample selection criteria included a Beck Depression Inventory score between 9 and 29, being aged between 25 and 65 years and using antidepressant medication. For ethical reasons, all participants continued with their “standard” antidepressant treatment throughout the study. The Personal Profile Questionnaire (PPQ), the Beck Depression Inventory Scale (BDI) 1978, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) 1965, the Life-Experience Survey (LES) 1977 questionnaire and a question on exercise were used to assess the effectiveness of the group interventions. Pre-test (prior to the introduction of the intervention) and two sequential Post-test scoring (after 6 and 12 weeks of interventions) were undertaken using the above-named instruments. The Kruskal Willis and Friedman’s test were used to detect changes in levels of depression and self-esteem between and within the three groups respectively, at the p = 0.05 levels of significance. The intergroup comparison showed statistically significant improvements in the BDI score of Experimental groups 1 and 2, with p = 0.00. There were no changes in the Control group. The intra-group comparison showed statistical significant improvements during the study within the intervention groups (p = 0.00 in both cases) but not in the Control group. No statistically significant change in the RSE amongst or within the three group was detected. The study has shown that group interventions as an adjunct to antidepressant treatment are beneficial as rehabilitation programmes for depressed women. Furthermore, volunteers and psychiatric nurses with training in using group interventions may be useful in assisting depressed patients to enhance their quality of life. / Lundbeck Pharmaceutical Company

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A review of the past decade of literature on the subject of depression in South African women revealed a paucity of research that documents the perspectives of low-income women who have been diagnosed with depression. Informed by this and recent feminist critiques of the concept of depression, this study aimed to bring traditionally overlooked perspectives to the fore by providing rich descriptions of the subjectively lived experience of depression, as recounted by low-income women themselves. This feminist phenomenological study took place in a poor, rural community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten low-income women who had been diagnosed with depression. The transcribed interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. A number of important findings emerged. Firstly, participants were seen to express somatic complaints ahead of (and more frequently than) disclosures of sadness. Secondly, participants often described experiencing their psychological distress as anger, anxiety and a changed sense of self. Thirdly, participants generally attributed these experiences (and their overall distress) to a history of childhood trauma, the loss of important relationships, being physically, sexually or emotionally abused, feeling under supported and overburdened by multiple responsibilities, living in dangerous communities, and/or the various consequences of poverty. Finally, it was observed that while symptoms of suicidal ideation and intent were present in many of the women interviewed, strong religious and cultural norms existed and generally functioned to silence and deny the subject. Overall, the women’s subjective experiences, understandings and descriptions of depression allowed a more complex picture to emerge than that which is currently offered by mainstream biomedical models. Consequentially, the current conceptualisation of the term “depression” was deemed to be inadequate, specifically because it does not fully capture low-income women’s experiences of distress, and also because it tends to obscure the possible impact of socio-economic and political contexts on their mental health. Implications of these findings include firstly, that not only does the diagnosis of depression serve to medicalise women’s misery, but it may simultaneously serve to obscure their feelings of anger, anxiety, sadness, hopelessness and other symptoms of distress that are intrinsically linked to their disadvantageous social and living conditions. Secondly, the findings indicate that the use of traditional diagnostic and suicide assessment interviews may be unhelpful or even irresponsible in some South African contexts. Finally, many of the study findings warrant further investigation and psychological research. Recommendations to this end are thus included and stress the need to use theoretical perspectives and research methodologies that are sensitive to the multilayered, complex psychological experiences of depression in low-income women. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: ’n Oorsig van die afgelope dekade se literatuur oor depressie by Suid-Afrikaanse vroue dui op ’n gebrek aan navorsing oor die perspektiewe van vroue uit lae-inkomstegroepe wat met dié toestand gediagnoseer word. Na aanleiding hiervan sowel as onlangse feministiese kritiek op die konsep van depressie, was hierdie studie dus daarop toegespits om tradisioneel miskende perspektiewe na vore te bring deur middel van ’n ryke beskrywing van die subjektiewe ervaring van die lewe met depressie soos vroue uit lae-inkomstegroepe self daarvan vertel. Hierdie feministiese fenomenologiese studie is in ’n arm, landelike gemeenskap in die provinsie Wes-Kaap, Suid-Afrika, onderneem. Semigestruktureerde diepte-onderhoude is gevoer met tien vroue in die laeinkomstekategorie wat met depressie gediagnoseer is. Die getranskribeerde onderhoude is op vertolkende fenomenologiese wyse ontleed. ’n Aantal belangrike bevindinge is gemaak. Eerstens het die meeste deelnemers somatiese klagtes gehad voordat (en meer dikwels as wat) hulle oor hul neerslagtigheid en terneergedruktheid gepraat het. Tweedens het heelwat deelnemers hul sielkundige nood as woede, angs en ’n gewysigde selfbeskouing beskryf. Derdens het die vroue merendeels hul ervarings (en hul algehele nood) aan ’n geskiedenis van kindertrauma, die verlies van belangrike verhoudings, fisiese, seksuele of emosionele mishandeling, ’n gebrek aan ondersteuning tesame met ’n oormaat verantwoordelikhede, hul gevaarlike woonbuurte en/of die verskillende gevolge van armoede toegeskryf. Laastens is waargeneem dat hoewel die ideasie en voorneme van selfdood wél as simptome by baie van die respondente opgemerk is, daar terselfdertyd sterk godsdienstige en kulturele norme bestaan waarvolgens dié onderwerp oor die algemeen doodgeswyg en ontken word. In die geheel skets die vroue se subjektiewe ervarings, begrippe en beskrywings van depressie ’n meer komplekse prentjie as wat hoofstroom- biomediese modelle tot dusver gebied het. Dus blyk die huidige konseptualisering van die term ‘depressie’ onvoldoende te wees, veral omdat dit nie die ervarings en nood van vroue uit lae-inkomstegroepe ten volle vasvang nie, en ook geneig is om die moontlike impak van sosio-ekonomiese en politieke kontekste op dié vroue se geestesgesondheid te misken. Die implikasies van hierdie bevindinge sluit eerstens in dat die diagnose van depressie nie net hierdie vroue se nood ‘medikaliseer’ nie, maar terselfdertyd dalk ook hul gevoelens van woede, angs, hartseer, hopeloosheid en ander simptome van nood wat ten nouste met hul minderbevoorregte maatskaplike en lewensomstandighede verband hou, verberg. Tweedens dui die bevindinge daarop dat die gebruik van tradisionele diagnostiese en selfdoodevalueringsonderhoude in sekere Suid-Afrikaanse kontekste nutteloos en selfs onverantwoordelik kan wees. Laastens regverdig baie van die studie se bevindinge verdere ondersoek en sielkundige navorsing. Aanbevelings in hierdie verband word dus ingesluit, en beklemtoon onder meer die behoefte aan teoretiese perspektiewe en navorsingsmetodologieë wat gevoelig is vir die meervlakkige, komplekse sielkundige ervarings van depressie by vroue uit laeinkomstegroepe.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated the incidence of depression, post-traumatic stress symptomatology, anger and guilt in a shelter sample of 40 battered women. In addition, the presence of dysfunctional, evaluative beliefs, as viewed from a Rational-emotive perspective, was investigated, as well as the relationship between dysfunctional beliefs and symptoms of psychopathology. Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory, Post-traumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale, Anger Diagnostic Scale, Trauma Related Guilt Inventory and Survey of Personal Beliefs. It was found that 63% of the participants showed moderate to severe levels of depression, while 59% manifested high post-traumatic stress symptomatology. Between 38% and 50% experienced problems with anger whilst 48.5% showed moderate guilt. In general, these symptoms did not correlate with the age of participants or with the duration or frequency of abuse, except for anger which was related to a history of childhood sexual and/or physical abuse. The results of the Survey of Personal Beliefs indicated that the group displayed Otherand Self-directed Demands, Awfulizing, Low Frustration-tolerance and Negative Selfworth. Only Low Frustration-tolerance (underestimation of coping skills) correlated significantly with levels of depression, anger and guilt. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het die insidensie van depressie, post-traumatiese stressimptome, woede en skuldgevoelens in 'n groep van 40 vroulike slagoffers van gesinsgeweld, wat die huweliksverhouding verlaat het en in 'n skuiling vir mishandelde vroue opgeneem is, ondersoek. Die disfunksionele, evaluerende kognisies, soos deur die Rasioneel-emotiewe gedragsterapie gepostuleer, asook die korrelasie tussen hierdie kognisies en die simptome van psigopatologie, is ook ondersoek. Deelnemers het die Beck Depression Inventory, Post-traumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale, Anger Diagnostic Scale, Trauma-Related Guilt Inventory en Survey of Personal Beliefs voltooi. Die resultate het aangedui dat 63% van die deelnemers matige tot ernstige vlakke van depressie getoon het, terwyl hoë post-traumatiese stressimptomatologie by 59% voorgekom het. Tussen 38% en 50% het probleme met woede getoon, terwyl matige skuldgevoelens by 48.5% voorgekom het. Oor die algemeen het hierdie simptome nie verband getoon met die ouderdom van deelnemers of met die duur of frekwensie van die mishandeling nie, behalwe die vlak van woede wat 'n verband getoon het met 'n geskiedenis van kindermolestering. Tellings op die Survey of Personal Beliefs het aangedui dat die groep die disfunksionele, evaluerende kognisies van Self- en Ander-gerigte Eise, Katastrofering, Lae Frustrasie - toleransie en Negatiewe Selfwaarde getoon het. Slegs Lae Frustrasie-toleransie (onderskatting van hanteringsvaardighede) het beduidend met vlak van depressie, woede en skuldgevoelens gekorreleer.

In spite of theoretical models representing a bidirectional pattern of influence between children and mothers (Sameroff & MacKenzie, 2003), few comprehensive longitudinal studies have examined how maternal psychological functioning and child behavior relate to each other over time. This study explored the transactional relationship between child problem behavior (i.e., internalizing and externalizing) and maternal depressive symptoms from toddlerhood to adolescence. The transactional dynamic was conceptualized in two ways—(a) parallel growth and (b) bidirectional effects—in terms of timing, direction, and the magnitude of effects, as well as how effects were moderated by gender and level of maternal depressive symptoms. Data were drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,179). Using advanced statistical techniques in the structural equation modeling framework, such as multivariate latent growth curve models, latent class analyses, and fully autoregressive cross-lagged models, these findings demonstrate that in contrast to the traditional unidirectional maternal effects framework, the transactional dynamic more accurately represents the relationship between maternal and child functioning. Specifically, results indicated that the relationship between child internalizing behavior and maternal depressive symptoms was more strongly characterized as a parallel growth dynamic, whereas child externalizing behavior and maternal depressive symptoms more consistently exerted mutual influence. Bidirectional effects were not restricted to periods of heightened psychosocial stress, such as toddlerhood, adolescence, or transitions in school. Gender and level of maternal depressive symptoms moderated this bidirectional association. Maternal depressive symptoms had the largest effect on child internalizing behavior in middle childhood. Children’s externalizing behaviors in toddlerhood and early childhood had a strong effect on maternal depressive symptoms; the magnitude of this effect was greater than any other pathway from children to mothers or mothers to children. Findings suggest that children’s externalizing and internalizing behavior may serve as a potential risk factor for future increases in maternal depressive symptoms.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 23, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-60).

Not available / text

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.