Depression, anxiety and self-image among children and adolescents

A group of children and adolescents aged between 11 and 17 years were administered four questionnaires, Offer's Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ), Kovacs' Children Depression Inventory (CDI), Spielberger's Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and an inventory of items to assess Parental and Educational Attitudes (IPEA). Step-wise multiple regression revealed that trait anxiety was the most potent predictor of trait depression, together with emotionality, low self-confidence, inferior family relationships (parental tension), mental ill-health and impulsivity. Linear discriminant analysis was conducted to determine which Self-image scales were useful determinants of depression in two extreme depression scoring groups. Personality attributes rather than attitudinal dimensions appeared most highly related to depression, and this was not moderated by ethnicity. Adolescents scoring high on the depression scale further differed in their attitudes towards parents, siblings and school. They were more likely to complain about their relationship to their parents (low family involvement and cohesiveness), and to display low achievement motivation and obediency. A 2 x 2 ANOVA-using groups of anxiety/stable and external/internal respondents generated on the basis of their scores on the DIKJ and AS1 Offer scale-showed that although a main effect was found for anxiety (highly anxious respondents were likely to be more depressed) and externality (externals are more susceptible to depression than internals), a significant anxiety x externality interaction term was found: it was the combination of low self-confidence or externality and trait anxiety which seems to determine trait depression.