Review Of Literature On The Effects Of Depression On People From Ages 10-25

Mental health can affect how one goes about their daily lives or how they interact with the people around them. Depression can affect your mood, sleep, eating, daily behaviors and even one's energy levels. This mental disorder is fascinating which is why I chose this as the topic of my research paper. In this paper there will be multiple studies done researching how depression affects those from ages 10-25. Each article brings important information for my final paper such as prevention of depression, association of parental closeness and social support for those likely to have depressive disorders. Additionally other articles show the effects of early stress exposure and environmental conditions, the Psychotherapy approach, treatment, role of the family function, and screening for depressive symptoms in college students. These articles are all interesting because they acknowledge that depression is a mental disorder that can be helped or studied through multiple ways.

The first peer-reviewed article focuses on the long-term outcome of school-based students and how they could prevent depression in adolescents. In this study, they looked at 1, 500 students in grade 8 who were between the ages of 12 and 14. They randomly assigned 751 students to universal prevention program and 749 to the monitoring-control condition. In the universal prevention group, the researchers had students take the Beck Depression Inventory or dysthymia questions to see which students had high symptoms. Students with high symptoms would be interviewed during follow up periods that include 6-month, 1-year, 18-month, 2-year, 30-month, 3-year, and 4-year. The method behind this group was to find ways to intervene and help students who had high-symptoms. The monitoring-control condition group was more about school as usual however if a student tested for a depressive disorder they would receive the same follow-up and intervention. This study showed no significant difference between students who participated in the prevention program between pre-intervention and the 4-year follow up. It was seen that the prevention helped however not significantly enough to help students long term. This article was interesting and will be beneficial to my research because it shows prevention of depression or how students are getting treated for depression. I think this method was fascinating however it made me question if there would be other methods that could lead to more long-term results. It has been seen that adolescents experience an increased rate of depression and the next article looks at adolescents depression and substance use while additionally looking at closeness to parents.

This article also looks at social support for adolescents such as peers, or extracurricular activities. To conduct this study the researchers followed youths throughout their high school years studying 173 females and 201 males from the Northeast. This study also includes students with different racial backgrounds and different socioeconomic status. To measure these students the researchers had students participate in questionnaires during class time and the Children's Depression Inventory. Overall it was seen that both mother and father closeness was negatively correlated with depression and substance use for boys and girls.

I think this article was interesting because it showed how children and adolescents might be influenced by those who are around them. For youths, the people around them are a big influence on how they view the world or how they end up developing. This article will be beneficial to my research topic because it shows how external factors influence youths mental health. This article will help show the how social and family support could have an effect on youths likelihood of depression. The next article was interesting because it looked how anxiety disorders and depressive disorders could be affected by early stressors such as maternal prenatal stress or the relationships the mother was involved in. This study looked at 414 males and 402 females who were 15 years old with an anxiety disorder or depressive disorder compared to those will no disorders or the control group. The results of this study showed that females had a higher proportion in both disorder groups compared to the control group. Additionally, this study showed that those with anxiety disorders were more likely because of early stress exposure compared to the depressive disorders which were more likely because of proximal stressors.

I think this article is fascinating because it looks at the early environmental conditions that could have an effect on the depressive outcomes. This article looks more at the background of why anxiety disorders and depressive disorders occur which allows for more information into how adolescents might develop one of these disorders. This background information will be helpful in showing how early stress exposure for youths between birth and adolescence may lead to such disorders in the future which can give me more insight on my research topic. We can look at depression from a sociological perspective, however, I thought this article was interesting because it looked at depression from a psychological standpoint. This article looked at children and adolescents who have major depression through psychodynamic psychotherapy. The researchers in this study looked at two different forms of psychotherapy with the first one being Focused Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy which looks at interpersonal relationships, life stresses, and dysfunctional attachments.

The second form is Systems Integrative Family Therapy which looks at family dysfunctions. This article is different from the previous articles because it looked specifically at one 14-year-old female named Maria and one 12-year-old boy named Peter. This article can show how therapy can be beneficial for younger patients who have major depression. From this study, it was seen that therapy provided these children with the opportunity to talk about their negative emotions and how these emotions affect their lives. I think this article is interesting because unlike the other articles it looks at two specific children who currently have major depression. The other articles looked at how to prevent depressive disorders or if children and adolescents might be affected in early life. This different perspective will help me look at my research from a different view and will help provide more information about children and adolescents currently struggling with major depression. Overall I think this article provides more information into how children with major depression see the world and how they are struggling internally and externally in their lives. Within my research paper, I have chosen to look at people with depression who are between the ages of 10-25. The articles above relate to children or adolescence whereas the next three articles will look at people who are college-aged.

This next article is a meta-analysis of 15 trials on college students which included 997 students. This meta-analysis was to compare college students with depression who were receiving psychological treatments to a control group. For this study effect sizes were seen to be significantly larger for students in individual therapy and not being paid for their service. This study additionally showed that therapy was effective for college students who have depression. This article is interesting because the information is broader, however, provides basic knowledge about college-aged students who are depressed. I think this article was helpful in showing how depression can increase the withdrawal rate of college students. The association between mother's education and their offsprings depression levels in college was the topic of the next article. This article looked at the role of the family function to see if a family's environment was associated with a college student's psychological health. It could be seen that if one had a dysfunctional family life there would be a higher risk for depression and increased risk of suicide. The researchers of this study included 806 females and 371 males from 12 universities in Beijing. In this study, the hypothesis model thought that mother's education would affect family function and in turn affect student's depression levels. The statistics of this study showed that in observing the last 6 months there were no statistically significant differences between genders when studying year in college, stress levels, and mother's education.

This article can show how family lifestyles or background can have an effect on college-aged students depression level. Everyone has a family or background when arriving at college and I think it's beneficial to see how that past can affect one's present mental health. In college students are more stressed however sometimes not getting the proper help for the depressive symptoms that are occurring. The last article studied college students over a 12 month period to find distinct courses of depressive symptoms. To get students who best benefitted this research the researchers screened for depressive symptoms than did a more in-depth assessment. If students reported with high symptoms after both additional assessments the student would then be observed through three evaluations in the year period. From this study, it was seen that with the 150 students the most common course of depressive symptoms were persisting and decreasing severity. If a student was socially disconnected or was negative feedback-seeking it was also seen that they would significantly predict positive results.

This study is informational because it can help identify those who need the most mental health help. Screening students in college can help students get the help they need while also providing information about their mental health. Furthermore, the two websites I have looked at for information regarding depression are Students Against Depression and the Mental Health America's page on Depression. The Mental Health America website provides information about basic facts, causes, different kinds, and symptoms. This website provides a hotline and also additional information for those suffering from depression. Students Against Depression show a real-world view about this mental disorder because it was started after two young men committed suicide which led their parents to create a project to help others suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts. These people know what affects depression can have and want to provide help for those who are experiencing depression as well as those around them. This website is helpful for my research because it shows the reality of such a disorder.

One can collect as much data on what effects people with depression, however, that doesn't show how people are affected socially. The articles above provide information, however, this website provides insight into the social relationships and family impact of those with depression. Overall I believe that all these articles and both of these websites will be beneficial for my final paper.

15 July 2020
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