Examined suicidal ideation in adolescent psychiatric inpatients as associated with depressive symptoms and attachment to mother, father, and peers. Fifty-nine adolescent psychiatric inpatients (25 male, 34 female) completed self-report measures of suicidal ideation, depressive symptoms, and attachment. Attachment to mother accounted for significant variation in levels of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. In addition, attachment to peers accounted for significant variation in suicidal ideation and girls' (but not boys') depressive symptoms. However, after adjusting for depressive symptoms, attachment variables failed to contribute additional variance in suicidal ideation. Self-reported depressive symptomatology remained the strongest predictor of suicidal ideation, regardless of its order in the regression analyses. Prevention and treatment efforts may focus on mother-adolescent attachment and peer attachment (particularly in girls) to reduce risk for depression and suicidal ideation.
As in a previous report, there was a relationship between premorbid personality and depressive symptoms in AD, but only when personality and symptom information was obtained from the same informant. On the other hand, there was a relationship between premorbid personality and severity of anxiety symptoms both when personality and symptom information came from different informants as well as from the same informant. These data suggest that retrospective bias contributes to the apparent consistency between premorbid personality and some aspects of psychiatric symptoms in AD, specifically depression.
Hopelessness may not be as useful an indicator of suicide risk among adolescent males as it is with adolescent females. Intervention and prevention programs designed for adolescent females should identify and address feelings of depression and hopelessness. New intervention and prevention programs may need to be developed for adolescent males.
The onset and course of depressive symptoms are influenced by a variety of interpersonal factors. Attachment theory provides a developmental framework for understanding the relationship between depressive symptoms and insecure attachment to one's parents and current romantic partner. The present study examined attachment theory for understanding depression and marital adjustment among 84 psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants completed a diagnostic interview and self-report measures of depressive symptoms, adult attachment, marital adjustment, and recollections of childhood relationships with parents. Avoidant (but not anxious) adult attachment mediated the link between current depressive symptoms and patients' recollections of relationships with opposite-sex parents. Although nearly three fourths of the current sample of depressed psychiatric inpatients acknowledged the presence of marital problems, the negative correlation between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment did not reach statistical significance. Attachment theory may aid therapeutic approaches to depression within the context of marriage and other long-term romantic relationships.
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