Parental attributions and depression in children

• Main Author: Joffe, Megan Barbara
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Depression in children; Attribution (Social psychology)
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/9630

M.A.(Clinical Psychology) === Recently the concept of depression in children has been receiving much attention, in contrast to the previous decade when children were generally regarded as being incapable of experiencing depression. This study was conducted in an attempt to ascertain whether depressed children exhibited a depressogenic attributional style as predicted by the Reformulated Learned Helplessness Model of Depression (Abramson, Seligman & Teasdale, 1978), and whether these children's attributional style matched those of either of their parents. Furthermore, the childrearing practices of the parents were investigated in order to establish whether parental attributional style was transferred to children through a particular child-rearing style. The Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs & Beck, 1977) was used to screen 166 privata school pupils, and an experimental and control group of 10 pupils each was formed on the basis of criterion scores. The KASTAN (Kaslow, Tannenbaum & Seligman, 1978) was the instrument employed to assess the attributional style of the children. Both mothers and fathers of the experimental and control groups were required, separately, to complete the Attributional Style Questionnaire (Peterson, Semmel, Abramson, Seligman & von Baeyer, 1978), which assesses adult attributional style and the Child-Rearing Practices Questionnaire (Dielman, Catell, Lepper & Rhoades, 1971). Data obtained from the investigation were subjected to t-tests, and Pearson product-moment correlation co-efficients were calculated to determine any significant differences and associations, respectively, between variables. The results of the study did not substantiate the hypotheses. It was suggested that perhaps the initial screening instrument, the Children's Depression Inventory, differentiated children with a general emotional disturbance, rather than depression per se, and that children develop attributional styles independently of their parents' style and childrearing practices. It was suggested that the development of an attributional style in children was related to their own experiential world.