Date of Award

12-1993

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Diane Prosser

Second Advisor

Dr. Ariel Anderson

Third Advisor

Dr. Edward Trembley

Abstract

The role of dependent personality traits in increased vulnerability to depression has been studied extensively. However,this issue remains controversial, and limited research has been done involving adolescent inpatients. In addition, limited research has been done regarding the possible interaction effects of gender and level of dependency upon depression and specific depressive symptoms in an adolescent inpatient population.

symptoms in an adolescent inpatient population. In this study, 92 inpatient adolescents from a private, not-for-profit psychiatric hospital had completed both the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (Millon, 1976, 1982), and the Multiscore Depression Inventory (Berndt, 1986).

One group consisted of 46 adolescents who had been rated as high on dependent personality traits. The second group, the control, consisted of 46 randomly selected subjects who had rated low on the dependent personality traits.

Using both one-way and 2 X 2 ANOVAS, no significant differences were found between the high dependency and the low dependency groups' measure of overall depression- -regardless of gender. However, significant differences were found for some of the specific depressive symptoms based upon either level of dependency, gender, or dependency X gender interaction effects. Significant findings related to prominent personality styles associated with severe depression were also discovered.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

Included in

Counseling Commons

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