Adolescent Depression and Attachment
Adolescent Depression and Attachment
Hypothesis
Will attached females will have a strong positive identification with their mother, higher self-esteem ratings and lower depression scores?
Will ambivalent and avoidant females will have a more negative identification with their mother, lower self-esteem ratings, and higher depressions scores?
Depression affects over 20% of adolescents. It is a disorder that disturbs their mood, causes a loss of interest or pleasure in activities they should enjoy, and makes them irritable. Several things are thought to be correlated with depression in adolescents. Some examples include, a failure to individuate, insecure attachments, negative parental representations, etc. (Milne & Lancaster, 2001; Olsson, Nordstrom, Arinell, & Knorring, 1999). In this paper, the role of attachment plays in adolescent depression is investigated. It is hypothesized that insecurely attached adolescents, (ambivalent or avoidant), will display higher levels of depression related symptoms and behaviors than securely attached adolescents. The following three literature review attempt to demonstrate and support this hypothesis.
Method
In a research article by Salzman (1996), two specific questions were addressed for guiding the study. First, would the age group (18-21) being investigated correspond in frequency and quality to attachment patterns reported by other researchers? Second, would personality characteristics of secure adolescent attachments correlate with personality characteristics of infant and child studies? The focus of the investigation was on late adolescent female attachment patterns, specifically maternal, using a semi structured interview. It is hypothesized that secretly attached females will have a strong positive identification with their mother, higher self-esteem ratings, and lower depression scores, while ambivalent and avoidant females will have a more negative identification with their mother, lower self-esteem ratings, and
Hypothesis
Will attached females will have a strong positive identification with their mother, higher self-esteem ratings and lower depression scores?
Will ambivalent and avoidant females will have a more negative identification with their mother, lower self-esteem ratings, and higher depressions scores?
Depression affects over 20% of adolescents. It is a disorder that disturbs their mood, causes a loss of interest or pleasure in activities they should enjoy, and makes them irritable. Several things are thought to be correlated with depression in adolescents. Some examples include, a failure to individuate, insecure attachments, negative parental representations, etc. (Milne & Lancaster, 2001; Olsson, Nordstrom, Arinell, & Knorring, 1999). In this paper, the role of attachment plays in adolescent depression is investigated. It is hypothesized that insecurely attached adolescents, (ambivalent or avoidant), will display higher levels of depression related symptoms and behaviors than securely attached adolescents. The following three literature review attempt to demonstrate and support this hypothesis.
Method
In a research article by Salzman (1996), two specific questions were addressed for guiding the study. First, would the age group (18-21) being investigated correspond in frequency and quality to attachment patterns reported by other researchers? Second, would personality characteristics of secure adolescent attachments correlate with personality characteristics of infant and child studies? The focus of the investigation was on late adolescent female attachment patterns, specifically maternal, using a semi structured interview. It is hypothesized that secretly attached females will have a strong positive identification with their mother, higher self-esteem ratings, and lower depression scores, while ambivalent and avoidant females will have a more negative identification with their mother, lower self-esteem ratings, and