Depressive symptoms in adolescents with a mentally or  somatically ill family member

Using data from a standard health monitor of 14749 adolescents (M = 14.32, SD = 1.23) from Gelderland, we examined whether adolescents with a mentally ill family member showed more depressive symptoms than adolescents with a somatically ill family member. Hereby, the effects of gender, age, family composition and educational level on depressive symptoms were also investigated. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Major Depression Inventory. As expected from our hypotheses, we found that both adolescents with a somatically (H1) and mentally (H2) ill family member showed more depressive symptoms than the controls. We also found that adolescents with a mentally ill family member showed more depressive symptoms than adolescents with a somatically ill family member (H3). Further, when taken the mental and somatic group together, girls scored higher on depressive symptoms than boys (H4), and older adolescents scored higher on depressive symptoms than younger adolescents (H5). We...Show moreUsing data from a standard health monitor of 14749 adolescents (M = 14.32, SD = 1.23) from Gelderland, we examined whether adolescents with a mentally ill family member showed more depressive symptoms than adolescents with a somatically ill family member. Hereby, the effects of gender, age, family composition and educational level on depressive symptoms were also investigated. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Major Depression Inventory. As expected from our hypotheses, we found that both adolescents with a somatically (H1) and mentally (H2) ill family member showed more depressive symptoms than the controls. We also found that adolescents with a mentally ill family member showed more depressive symptoms than adolescents with a somatically ill family member (H3). Further, when taken the mental and somatic group together, girls scored higher on depressive symptoms than boys (H4), and older adolescents scored higher on depressive symptoms than younger adolescents (H5). We found that especially older girls scored higher on depressive symptoms (H6). Furthermore, adolescents from a non-intact family scored higher on depressive symptoms than adolescents from an intact family (H7), and the lower educational levels were associated with more depressive symptoms compared to pre-university education level (H8). Results were significant but yielded a small explained variance. Based on this study, we recommend professionals to pay special attention to depressive symptoms of caregiving older adolescents, girls, adolescents with low educational level and adolescents from non-intact families.Show less

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Depressive symptoms in adolescents with a mentally or somatically ill family member