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Interpersonal and self-critical dysphoria and behavioral problems in adolescents

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Abstract

Clinical evidence suggests that various problem behaviors in adolescence can be expressions of dysphoria that have not reached threshold for the diagnosis of depressive disorders. Formulations of two major types of dysphoria distinguish between disruptions of interpersonal relatedness (e.g., feelings of loss or abandonment) and diminished self-esteem (e.g., feelings of self-criticism, failure, or guilt). Adolescents in a suburban high school were given the Achenbach Youth Self-Report, the Adolescent Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, and the Community Epidemiological Survey of Depression for Children (CES-DC). Even after level of depressive symptoms (CES-DC) was partialled out in hierarchical multiple regressions, interpersonal dysphoria significantly accounted for additional variance in predicting internalizing disorders, while self-critical dysphoria added significantly to the explained variance of both internalizing and externalizing disorders, specifically delinquency and aggression in both males and females.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, Yale University, 06519, New Haven, Connecticut

    Sidney J. Blatt (Professor), Donald M. Quinlan (Professor) & Bonnie Leadbeater (Assistant Professor)

  2. Department of Psychology, Pace University, New York, New York

    Beth Hart (Professor)

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York

    John Auerbach (Assistant Clinical Professor)

Authors
  1. Sidney J. Blatt
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  2. Beth Hart
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  3. Donald M. Quinlan
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  4. Bonnie Leadbeater
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  5. John Auerbach
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Additional information

Ph.D., 1957, University of Chicago. Research interests: The development of mental representations, their differential impairment in various forms of psychopathology (especially depression), and their change in the therapeutic process.

Ph.D., 1981, Yeshiva University. Research interests: adolescent pregnancy, depression, and ego development.

Ph.D., 1968, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Research interests: cognitive processes in schizophrenia, dependency and self-criticism in depression, and cognitive structural models of development and psychopathology.

Ph.D., 1986, Columbia University, New York. Research interests: adolescent development.

Ph.D., 1988, State University New York—Buffalo. Research interests: Language and self-representation and narcissism and borderline disorders.

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Blatt, S.J., Hart, B., Quinlan, D.M. et al. Interpersonal and self-critical dysphoria and behavioral problems in adolescents. J Youth Adolescence 22, 253–269 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01537791

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