Objective: To estimate the associations between measures of religiousness and depression and to determine if these associations have changed over the period 1952 to 1992. Methods: Data were drawn from 2,398 individuals from the 1952 and 1992 cross sectional surveys of the Stirling County Study as a means of studying time trends. For this thesis, questions about frequency of religious worship attendance, frequency of saying grace, religious importance were employed to develop a scale of secularism. The individual questions and the scale were analyzed in terms of the prevalence of depression at each time point. Logistic regression was used to determine associations of depression with religion variables, adjusted for demographic and other covariates. Results: Individuals who attended religious services weekly were over two times less likely to meet criteria for depression than infrequent attenders and this relationship did not change over time. Associations between religious attendance and depression were stronger among women and the medically healthy compared to men and those with a medical condition. Being more secular was associated with higher odds of depression among females. Conclusions: Religious attendance has consistently been associated with lower depression over a forty year period, irrespective of marked declines in population-level religious behaviors. Associations between religiousness and depression may be stronger in females than in males.

The symptoms of adolescent depression are often dismissed as quirks of the age—increased irritability or agitation, lack of concentration, frequent complaints, sleep disturbances, eating disturbances, decrease in grades or missed assignments. The impact of these symptoms reaches deeply into the both the academic and social lives of these adolescents. Exercise is beginning to emerge as a potential alternative to standard drug treatment for depression; however, very little research has been conducted with adolescents. The purpose of this case study is to describe the experiences (thoughts, feelings and actions) of four adolescent males with symptoms of depression from multiple perspectives, while they were participating in a daily aerobic exercise program. Throughout an eight-week program of daily three-on-three basketball scrimmages led by the researcher, four “at risk” boys aged 10-13 were invited to describe their experiences: their thoughts, feelings, attitudes and their beliefs about their social and academic life. Their parents and teachers also shared their perspectives through questionnaires, interviews and informal conversations. Researcher observations and field notes made by the researcher throughout the school day, in addition to the other data were used in a cross-case analysis to develop an understanding of exercise and its effects on the social, emotional, and academic lives of these boys. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-16 10:16:52.226

The purpose of this study was to explore specific types of informal social relationships- family or friends formed in nursing homes and to determine how each affected the health of the elderly, especially in the areas of loneliness and depression. A face-to-face interview using four structured questionnaires was adopted for this descriptive study design. The main outcomes of depression and loneliness were measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and University of California Loneliness Scale (UCLA). The Duke Inventory Social Support Scale, measuring both family and friend support separately, measured predictor variables of family and friend support. Eighty-seven percent of participants completed the study. The results indicate that friend support was a more reliable factor for predicting the levels of loneliness and depression after controlling for all other co-founding variables. The findings will help nurses and other health care personnel when assessing the social support networks, beliefs and preferences of older adults to plan and implement the best practices. This will also offer health care facilities suggested ways to reduce or combat loneliness and depression among the elderly people. / Thesis (Master, Nursing) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-16 20:34:22.965

Vulnerability to major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by extensive interpersonal dysfunction. A framework that has been used to understand this impairment is theory of mind, or the ability to decode and reason about others’ mental states. Previous research has identified a mental state decoding advantage in individuals with a past history of MDD, which has been explained in terms of an enhanced social orientation in those with depression vulnerability. Although social phobia is highly comorbid with MDD, there is no research investigating theory of mind abilities in individuals with social phobia, nor has there been research examining how social anxiety may better account for the relation of depression to heightened theory of mind ability. Furthermore, there is a paucity of research investigating whether evidence of such a relation extends to the more complex task of reasoning about others’ mental states. Thus, the goals of the current investigation were to examine whether heightened ToM accuracy in those with a history of MDD is better accounted for by social phobia, and whether superior ToM skills in those with past MDD are seen across tasks that tap the domains of decoding and reasoning. Participants (N = 109) were assigned to one of four groups based on a structured diagnostic interview: (a) past MDD only (n = 36); (b) social anxiety disorder only (n = 9); (c) comorbid past MDD and social anxiety disorder (n = 23); and (d) no psychiatric history (n = 41). Results show that having a history of MDD is associated with heightened mental state reasoning abilities only in the presence of current social phobia. However, theory of mind decoding was not elevated in this condition. This suggests that social phobia differentially influences the relation of past MDD and theory of mind ability for decoding and reasoning abilities. Furthermore, social phobia without a history of depression was associated with poor theory of mind decoding and reasoning. This reduced ability in individuals with social phobia may be the result of self-focused attention or avoidance of potential negative evaluation, but future research is required to specifically address these possibilities. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-28 10:30:44.686

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Denna studie ämnar beskriva hur enhetschefer på äldreboenden i två svenska kommuner upplever arbetet med att hantera depression hos de äldre inom deras respektive verksamheter. Åtta enhetschefer har under semistrukturerade intervjuer fått svara på frågor om vilken kunskap som finns gällande deprimerade äldre och hur de jobbar för att förebygga och uppmärksamma denna problematik. De fick också reflektera kring vilket ansvar de själva upplever att de har för hur depression bland de äldre hanteras. Deras svar har sedan med en hermeneutisk utgångspunkt analyserats med hjälp av en abduktiv metod där Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater och Butlers teori om ålderism fått bidra med viktiga infallsvinklar. Likaså har tidigare forskning på området tagits i beaktning. Resultat av studien visar att den upplevda kunskapen gällande depression hos äldre i de besökta verksamheterna är mycket låg. Vi upplever oss också se att det finns en önskan att lägga över ansvaret på andra yrkeskategorier, och att det i samband med detta tycks finnas en övertro till andras kunskap i ämnet. Utöver detta har vi också upplevt en brist på framförhållning och förståelse för att det behöver finnas utarbetade strategier för att hantera denna problematik redan innan den är ett faktum.

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