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Parental Criticism and Adolescent Depression: Does Adolescent Self-Evaluation Act as a Mediator?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2009

Catherine Bolton ,
Christine Barrowclough  and
Rachel Calam
Catherine Bolton
Affiliation:
Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Christine Barrowclough
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, UK
Rachel Calam*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, UK
*
Reprint requests to Rachel Calam, University of Manchester, School of Psychological Sciences, Zochonis Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: rachel.calam@manchester.ac.uk
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Abstract

Background: A better understanding of relationships between adolescent depression and family functioning may help in devising ways to prevent development of depression and design effective therapeutic interventions. Aims: This study explored the relationship of parental emotional attitudes, (perceived criticism and expressed emotion) to adolescent self-evaluation and depression. Methods: A sample of 28 clinic-referred adolescents and their mothers participated. The Five Minute Speech Sample was used to measure parental expressed emotion, and the adolescents completed the Children's Depression Inventory, Self-Perception Profile for Children global self-worth scale, a self-criticism scale and a perceived parental criticism scale. Results: There was partial support for a model of adolescent negative self-evaluation as a mediator in the relationship between parental emotional attitudes and adolescent depressive symptoms. The data also supported an alternative hypothesis whereby adolescent depressive symptoms are related to negative self-evaluation. Conclusions: The overall pattern of results emphasizes the significance of adolescents' perceptions of parental criticism, rather than actual levels, in understanding the relationship between parental emotional attitudes and adolescent depressive symptoms.

Keywords

Depressionself-evaluationexpressed emotionparenting
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 37 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 553 - 570
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2009

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