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Childhood Depression

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Submitted By flowerflower
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PYC 4802: Assignment 3

Interest in the study of adolescent depression and it's characteristic features has gained a lot more attention and research in recent years, especially due to the fact that the rate of adolescent depression has seemed to have increased of late. A great deal more research has been done on adult depression in the past, thus the study and interpretation of adolescent depression is a relatively new research field in comparison as discussed by Crowe (2006) Adult criteria was used to diagnose adolescent depression in early studies of adolescent depression, which was in the 1970s and 1980s era. The variations in the comparative rates of the presence of particular symptoms between adolescence and adults was found to be rather small by the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project found by Roberts et al. 1995, cited by Crowe (2006). Although there is evidence that children meet adult criteria for depression, there are still uncertainties about the validity of the concept of depressive disorder in children and adolescents found by Harrington (2001) as cited by Crowe (2006) The DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association2000; p. 353) suggests that ‘the core symptoms of a major depressive episode are the same for children and adolescents, although there is data that suggest that the prominence of characteristic symptoms may change with age’ as discussed by Crowe ( 2006) This essay will aim at discussing problems related to identifying, diagnosing and the assessment of adolescent depression, taking into account gender and contextual factors.

Context plays a big role in shaping peoples lives and emotions and well-being. Contextual factors that are related to depressive symptoms are death in the family, perceived positive and and negative impact of life events such as an increasing number of arguments with parents, trouble with police and classmates,

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