ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Depressive Disorders in Maltreated Children

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199103000-00014Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open archive

Abstract

This study examined the prevalence of depressive disorders in a sample of 56 7− to 12-year-old maltreated children. Overall, 18% of the sample met the diagnostic criteria for major depression, and 25% met the criteria for dysthymia, with the majority of the children who met the criteria for major depression also meeting the criteria for dysthymia. Ratings of the different types of maltreatment children experienced, together with measures of the children's social supports, attributional style, and cortisol secretion were examined to determine which maltreated children were most likely to evidence a depressive disorder. A discriminant analysis conducted using a subset of these measures correctly classified 91% of the sample in terms of their diagnostic status.

Key Words

childhood depression
child maltreatment

Cited by (0)

This investigation was supported by an award from the Smith Richardson Foundation. The author wishes to thank Drs. Bonnie Leadbeater, James Leckman, Peter Salovey, Albert Solnit, and Edward Zigler for their thoughtful review of earlier drafts of this manuscript. In addition, the author acknowledges Dr. James Leckman's assistance in assigning the diagnoses for the children in the study. The author also wishes to thank the entire Camp Winterfest staff, especially Deborah Buccino, Susan Clayton, Alexandra Cooke, Todd Pittinsky, and Elizabeth Wolfe. In addition, the author wishes to extend appreciation to the clients, social workers, and administrators of the Department of Children and Youth Services who made this study possible.

Copyright © 1991 The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.