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Hards, Emily, Orchard, Faith 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5324-5007 and Reynolds, Shirley
(2023)
‘I am tired, sad and kind’: self-evaluation and symptoms of depression in adolescents.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 17 (1).
ISSN 1753-2000
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Abstract
Introduction: Although self-evaluation i.e., negative perceptions of the self is a common depression symptom in adolescents, little is known about how this population spontaneously describe their self and available data on adolescent self-evaluation is limited. This study aimed to generate and report on a list of words used by healthy adolescents and those with elevated depression symptoms to describe their self-evaluation. Linguistic analysis (LIWC) was then used to compare self-evaluation between the two groups. Methods: Adolescents aged 13–18 years (n = 549) completed a measure of depression symptoms (the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire) and a measure of self-evaluation (the Twenty Statements Test). Responses were then collated and presented in a freely accessible resource and coded using Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) analysis. Results: Self-evaluation words generated by adolescents were uploaded to a publicly accessible site for future research: https://doi.org/10.15125/BATH-01234. Adolescents with elevated depression symptoms described themselves as ‘Tired’ and ‘Sad’ more than healthy adolescents. However, there was no difference between groups in respect to their use of specific positive, prosocial self-evaluation ‘words’ (i.e., ‘Caring’ and ‘Kind). Following Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) analysis, adolescents with elevated depression symptoms generated significantly more words than healthy adolescents, generated more words classified as negative emotion, anxiety and sadness and generated fewer words classified positive emotion than healthy adolescents. Conclusions: As predicted by the cognitive model of depression, our findings suggest that adolescents with elevated symptoms of depression generated more negative self-evaluation words than healthy adolescents; however they also generated prosocial positive self-evaluation words at the same rate as non-depressed adolescents. These novel data therefore identify an ‘island’ of resilience that could be targeted and amplified by psychological treatments for adolescent depression, and thus provide an additional technique of change.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding Information: This work was supported by Economic and Social Research Council; Dr Hards is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC Post Doctoral Fellowship, ES/W006332/1). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | adolescents,cognitive theory,depression,self-concept,self-evaluation,twenty statements test,pediatrics, perinatology, and child health,psychiatry and mental health,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2735 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Aug 2024 09:30 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Sep 2024 18:02 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96302 |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s13034-023-00661-4 |
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