Depression Hurts

Have you heard this commercial? I am sure you have. It's on all the time. "Depression hurts. Who does depression hurt? Everyone."


We talked about it the other day in my class.


Currently I am working on a big assignment, but I thought this might be a good way to organize some of my thoughts. I am working on reading 5 articles from different professional journals such as the Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Men's Studies, Journal of Sex Research, Journal of Multicultural and Development, and Journal of Counseling and De Counseling velopment. You would not believe how interesting a lot of these articles are. My assignments was to research a specific ethnic group (I chose Hispanics/Latinos), read 5 articles about them (I read 14 because they were so engaging), and write 5 summaries with my perspective and recommendation. I have currently written 3 of my 5. I am working on the 4th. 


The 4th article is all about depression in adolescent and young adult Latinas. It is SO interesting. 


First of all, here are some depression facts…

• Twice as many women are depressed than men
• 20% of women have had a severe enough bout with depression that they have sought clinical help
• 2.5% of children (both boys and girls) experience clinical depression
• 8.5% of adolescence (both boys and girls) experience clinical depression 
• Hispanic girls and women have consistently higher depression rates than their white counterparts
• Mexican American youth have the highest rates of depression out of all ethnic backgrounds (they are 1.5 times more likely to report dysphoric symptoms)
• Research shows that children who view their family as economically worse off than their peers have higher rates of depression
• 51% of Latina girls in the United States become pregnant by the age 20 (this is important to consider when determining the effects of depression in young adult Latinas - could some of the reports be post-partum, etc.)
• Being an abused child leads to 3 to 4 times more likely to being depressed as an adolescent or adult (in general for all ethnicities)
• sexual abuse carries the greatest risk in becoming depressed (in general for all ethnicities)
• connection with the family and family bonding are found to be connected with lower dysphoria and fewer depressive symptoms in both male and female adolescents and adults
• poor self-efficacy (self-esteem) has been frequently cited as an increasing risk that the individual will experience depressive symptoms
• substance use (drugs, alcohol) is likely to have a reciprocal effect on depression up to 4 years later
• religion is a protecting factor that can be related to depression (meaning religion can help prevent depression)

Now, this particular study began to breakdown the reasons that Latinas are most prone to depression. It studied 904 adolescents Latinas ranging from 13-24 years old with 534 of them being pregnant. They studying their childhood experiences such as maltreatment, abuse, neglect, parental drug use, connection with the family and family bonding. It also looked at self-efficacy, social conformity, and polysubstance problems, and religion.

The study hypothesized that childhood maltreatment, parental drug/alcohol use, and family disconnection would lead to depression while self-efficacy, social conformity, and family connection would be protecting factors for dysphoria.

What they found was intresting… the only significant risk factor for dysphoria was childhood neglect. However, many protecting factors emerged including family connectedness, positive family relationships, social conformity, religious commitment, law abidance, and self-efficacy, with the most significant being family connectedness.

They also found that the pregnant girls did not show higher signs of depression, but rather those who were depressed and had higher levels of religiosity showed lower levels of dysphoria while those who were pregnant and showed lower levels of religiosity shower higher levels of dysphoria. This was the same for those not pregnant as well. Very interesting. I don't know about you, but I would say that this is likely because something to believe in gives a person worth and meaning.


References:
Locke, T., Newcomb, M., Duclos, A., & Goodyear, R. (2007). Psychosocial predictors and correlates of dysphoria in adolescent and young adult Latinas. Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 135-149.

Well, organizing my thoughts on here did help and now I am done with that paper! Thanks for letting me voice my thoughts on here - let me know what you think!

On to paper #5….