Literature Review Work

Adolescent Depression 1 Running Head: ADOLESCENT DEPRESSION Adolescent Depression and Attachment Ima G. Student Purdue University Heading (on all pages): running head plus page number Running head (a shortened version of the title is defined on the title page and used in the heading of your paper. Title of paper Author’s name(s) Institutional affiliation (your college, university, institution) Title, name and affiliation are centered. Heading is right justified. Running head is left justified. Adolescent Depression 2 Adolescent Depression and Attachment Depression affects over 20% of adolescents. It is a disorder that disturbs their mood\ , causes a loss of interest or pleasure in activities they should enjoy, and makes them irritable. Several things are thought to be correlated with depression i\ n adolescents.

Some examples include, a failure to individuate, insecure attachments, n\ egative parental representations, etc (Milne & Lancaster, 2001; Olsson, Nordstrom, Arinell, & Knor - ring, 1999). In the present paper, the role of attachment plays in adolescent depression is investigated. It is hypothesized that insecurely attached adolescents\ , (ambivalent or avoidant), will display higher levels of depression related symptoms an\ d behaviors than securely attached adolescents. The following five literature review attempt to demon - strate and support this hypothesis.

In a research article by Salzman (1996), two specific questions were addressed for guid - ing the study. First, would the age group (18-21) being investigated correspond in \ fre - quency and quality to attachment patterns reported by other researchers? Second, would personality characteristics of secure adolescent attachments correlate w\ ith personality characteristics of infant and child studies? The focus of the investigation was on late adolescent female attachment patterns, specifically maternal, using a semi structured interview. It is hypothesized that secretly attached females will have a strong positive identification with their mother, higher self-esteem ratings, and lower depression scores, wile ambivalent and avoidant females will have a more\ negative identification with their mother, lower self-esteem ratings, and higher depressions scores.

The sample consisted originally of 1001 random psychology students at a \ college, but through screening procedures and the importance to have approximately equal numbers in all categories of attachment, it was reduced to 28 who were used in t\ he study. Explains why topic is important This is considered jargon and needs to be explained. Studies are listed in alphabetical order. Gives read - er an idea of what the paper will cover. Focuses only on reviewing literature that supports hypothesis. Descriptions of the prior studies should always be in the past tense because the study has already oc - curred. Notice that not a lot of detail is given about how the study was conducted. Instead, the description focuses on the rationale behind the study. Gives read - er an idea of what the paper will cover. Adolescent Depression 3 The results in this study supported the hypothesis that relative percent\ ages of the at - tachments (secure, ambivalent, avoidant) would correspond to those rep\ orted by infant researchers. The current study percentages were; 73% had a secure attachment, 16% had\ an ambivalent attachment, and 10% had an avoidant attachment. This has significance when looking a what infant researchers report, which is &0% secure, 20% \ ambivalent and 10% avoidant (Salzman, 1996). The results also indicated that there was a signifi - cant difference in personality characteristics between the secure and ambivalent\ groups . Ambivalently attached females were significantly more depress and reported signifi - cantly lower rates of self-esteem than securely attached female adolesce\ nts. The avoid - ant attachment group was in the middle of the secure and ambivalent grou\ ps in relation to depression and self-esteem, but wasn’t significantly different from either group. It is also reported that securely attached female adolescents have a significantly more posi - tive maternal identification than ambivalently attached adolescents and avoidant female adolescents fall in the middle.

All of these results combined confirm the hypothesis that personality characteristics like positive affect, interpersonal skills, and self-esteem, of securely attached adoles\ cents cor - relates to infant child personality characteristics of secure attachment\ s (Salzman, 1996).

One limitation to the study is that it is not longitudinal. It rests on \ he here and now rather than beginning at childhood and following the females as they were devel\ oping. Another limitation to the study is the sample consisted of all females. The correlations may have been significantly different had adolescent boys been involved. All citations come before punctuation Notice that the author focuses on the main findings that related to the hypothesis stated earlier. Author points out relevant methodological issues that may have affected findings. Adolescent Depression 4 Next, the topic of attachment in relation to adolescent depression is ad\ dressed according to social networks. In a research article by Olsson et al. (1999), two questions were ad - dressed. First, do depressed adolescents have a more limited and insufficient social net - work? Second, do depressed adolescents view the emotional condition of their family as more negative? The focus of the study is to investigate the social networks of depressed adolescents, with and without conduct disorder comorbidity, and compare the results with the social networks of the control group (non-depressed adolescent\ s). A sample of 177 pairs, ages 16-17, female and male were used in the study. Five subgroups were cre - ated out of these 177 pairs through initial screening processes.

The results indicate than an adolescent with an episode of major depress\ ion does not differ significantly from the controls. They do not have deficiencies in social interac - tions, attachment, or family climate. This finding is not easily explained other than these individuals are less affected by the depressive thinking. On the other hand, adolescents with double depression or dysthmia feel their primary caregiver is avail\ able but more inadequate than controls. Also, they view their family condition as more negative than controls. These results confirm the hypothesis that depressed adolescents have an insuffi - cient, limited social network and that they view their family conditions\ as more negative (Olsson, et al., 1999). One limitation to this study is the informatio\ n is from the adoles - cents themselves. Parents had no involvement. Another limitation is that the controls were chosen from the whole group after screening by having a score below\ moderate depression. The controls themselves may not be absolutely free from depression. There isn’t much transition between description of the different studies (here and throughout the paper). It would be better to show the connections between the ideas of the different studies. This would make the organization of the paper clearer to the reader and would stress the similarities and differences between the studies. With more than two authors, use all of the names in the first citation.

Afterwards just use the last name of the first author fol - lowed by “et al.” More jargon; most readers won’t know what this means.

Points out limitations that affect the study’s validity. Discusses findings and how they relate to the hypothesis. Doesn’t quote from the article; provides a summary instead. This is much more common in APA style. This sentence would be clearer as two separate sentence Explains how the findings contradict the hypothesis. Adolescent Depression 5 Next, the topic of attachment in relation to adolescent depression is ad\ dressed using a hypothetical model. In the research article by Milne and Lancaster (200\ 1), they investi - gate the processes that are related to depression. The main focus was to create a model that included parent representations, parent attachment, peer attachment\ , separation-indi - viduation, interpersonal concerns, and self-critical concerns and demons\ trate how, when combined, they can predict symptoms of depression in adolescents. The sample consisted of 59 females, ages 14-16, from secondary schools. It is predicted that \ past parenting will be related to attachment felt to parent currently, that maternal control and care will be related to attachment and the process of separation-individuation, that \ adolescent attach - ment will be directly related to parent attachment The results indicate that female adolescent symptoms of depression are e\ xplained by interpersonal concerns, self-critical concerns, parent and peer attachme\ nt, perceived parenting, and separation-individuation. The results indicate that female adolescents are more vulnerable to depressive symptoms if the have low levels of materna\ l care, expe - rience feelings of guilt, dependence, and self-criticism, and have poor \ parent and peer attachments. Both maternal care and control predicted parent attachment.\ In regards to this finding, too much maternal care predicts high levels of depression. This is contrary to what is hypothesized and believe to be true because there is a point \ where too much maternal care can have negative effects (Milne & Lancaster, 2001). One limitation of this study is that shorter versions of some measure had to be used due to the\ time constraints mandated by the school. Another limitation to the study is that the focus is on females and the relationships they have with their mothers. Good connection with other study that was discussed earlier. More of this would make the paper flow better and be easier to see the connections between ideas. In this sentence, the commas are not necessary. Adolescent Depression 6 Next, the topic of attachment in relation to adolescent depression is ad\ dressed by testing factors related to attachment. In the research article by Muris,\ Messters, Melick, and Zwambag (2001), it is hypothesized that adolescents who co\ nsidered themselves securely attached on the initial measure would have higher sc\ ores of trust and communication and lower scores of alienation than ambivalent o\ r avoidant attached adolescents. Also, it is predicted that adolescents who identify themselves as insecurely attached will display higher levels of depressive symptoms\ and anxiety disorders than securely attached adolescents. Furthermore, trust and com\ munication would be negative correlated with depression and anxiety and positively \ correlated alienation. The sample consisted of 155, female and male, 12-14 years old. The tests were administered during class time with a teacher or research assistant\ always pres - ent.

The percentages yielded of the attachments (secure, ambivalent, avoidan\ t) are con - sistent with infant child studies, but also with Salzman’s (1996) research. The cur - rent study’s percentages were 72.9% secure 16.8% ambivalent, and 10.3% avoidant.

The results support both predictions made by the authors, with the excep\ tion that communication was only correlated with adolescent depression scores (Mu\ ris, et al., 2001). One limitation to the study is that it is assumed that attachmen\ t later in life is a direct result of early attachment. Another limitation to the study is whether or not categorical test like the attachment questionnaire for children is as precise as a di - mensional measure might be. With this measure, the extent to which the adolescent displays an attachment can be measured. An apostrophe is needed here. Makes explicit connection between literature being reviewed and thesis. Adolescent Depression 7 Finally, the topic of attachment in relation to adolescent depression is addres\ sed using a longitudinal study. In a research article by Allen, Hauser, and Borman-Spurrell (1996), a longitudinal study investigates the effects of adolescent psychopathology on future attachment patterns. Two questions that were addressed in this study are relevant to the main topic of this paper. First, does adolescent psychopathology that results in hospi - talization predict future insecure attachments in young adulthood? Second, are young adults’ attachment styles reflective of their current state of mind and does this link have a direct effect from adolescent psychopathology? The sample consisted of 142, upper middle class females and males, ages 14-17. Seventy-six of the adolescen\ ts were re - cruited from a public high school; the other 66 were adolescents who had\ been admitted to a psychiatric hospital for severe psychopathology. Eleven years after the adolescents ere initially interviewed and tested they were reevaluated and data was \ compared. At the initial assessment, parents were integrated into the process.

The results indicate a significant difference between high school and previously hospi - talized young adults attachment style. Almost 50% of high school adolescents in young adulthood had a secure attachment style, compared to only approximately \ 8% of the previously hospitalized young adults. Also, previously hospitalized young adults showed a lack of resolution of previous trauma and were not able to explain att\ achment experi - ences clearly or consistently. These results give conclusions to the import questions in the study (Allen, et al., 1996). One limitation to the study is the question of reliability of the trauma information reported by the adolescents. Another limitation to the study is the fact that all the individuals involved were from the same socio-economic\ status. A comma is needed here. This sentence could be phrased more clearly. Adolescent Depression 8 Taken together, the results indicate that attachment plays an important role adolescen\ t depression, significantly ambivalent or avoidant (Allen, et al., 1996; Milne & Lancaster, 2001; Muris, et al.; Olsson, et al.; Salzman, 1996). Adolescents that are secure attached to their primary care giver tend to have lower rates of depression relat\ ed symptoms and behaviors. It can be assumed from these five literature reviews that infant attachment styles influence future attachments, behaviors, and psychological well-being. More lon - gitudinal studies should be done. It is important to understand the actu\ al though process over several years of individuals who have different attachment styles. Also, parents and other individuals who play a major role in the individuals’ lives who are involved in the study should be included more. This would help with testimony reliability and better as - sessment of the severity of the disorder. Conclusion sums up the main findings of the lit. review, and gives suggestions as to what future research should focus on. Notice that references are listed in alphabetical order, not order they appear in the paper. Adolescent Depression 9 References Allen, J.P., Hauser, S.T., & Borman-Spurrell, E. (1996). Attachment theory as a framework for understanding sequelae of severe adolescent psychopathology:

An 11-year follow-up study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 64, 254-263 Milne, L. C. & Lancaster, S. (2001). Predictors of depression in female adoles - cents. Adolescence , 36, 207-223. Muris, P., Meesters, C., Melick, M., & Zwambag, L. (2001). Self-reported at - tachment style, attachment quality, and symptoms of anxiety and depression in young adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 30 , 809-818. Olsson, G. I., Nordstrom, M., Arinell, H., & Knorring, A. (1999). Adolescent depression: Social network and family climate—a case-control study. Journal of Child Psychology Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40 , 227-237. Salzman, J. P. (1996). Primary attachment in female adolescents: Association with depression, self-esteem, and maternal identification. Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 59 , 20-23. Journal title and volume number (or underlined). All lines after the first line of each reference are indented (this is called a hanging indent).