Abstract
Depression and perceptions of the family were examined in adolescents in frequent contact with their family. Subjects were either students scoring nondepressed (n =19) or moderately or severely depressed (n =19) on the Beck Inventory or the sibling closest in age to the student (n's = 19 per group). Siblings of depressed students scored mildly and significantly more depressed than siblings of nondepressed students. From these 38 student — sibling pairs, all pairs were selected in which (a) the offspring, considered the index offspring, was moderately or severely depressed but the sibling was nondepressed (D index offspring n =12, and their ND siblings n =12), or (b) neither offspring nor sibling was depressed (ND index offspring n =16, and their ND siblings n =16). This provided a 2(level of depression in index offspring) ×2(member of pair) factorial design. Perceptions of the family were assessed by the Family Environment Scale (FES). Pairs with one D offspring viewed their family significantly more negatively than did pairs in which neither offspring was D on Cohesion, Expressiveness, Conflict, Intellectual-Cultural Orientation, and Organization. ND siblings of D index offspring viewed their family significantly more negatively than did ND siblings of ND index offspring on Cohesion, Conflict, and Intellectual-Cultural Orientation. The last finding introduces the possibility that negative perceptions of the family in depressed offspring may not be specific to depression.
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The present study was conducted by the last two authors under the supervision of the first author in partial fulfillment of the psychology major at St. Louis University. We gratefully express our appreciation to Florissant Valley Community College for allowing the voluntary participation of a portion of their student body.
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Oliver, J.M., Handal, P.J., Finn, T. et al. Depressed and nondepressed students and their siblings in frequent contact with their families: Depression and perceptions of the family. Cogn Ther Res 11, 501–515 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01175359
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01175359