Eastern Michigan University DigitalCommons@EMU Master's Theses, and Doctoral Dissertations, and Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations Graduate Capstone Projects 5-2007 Parental attributions concerning the causes and controllability of adolescent depression Joan E. McDowell Follow this and additional works at: http://commons.emich.edu/theses Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons Recommended Citation McDowell, Joan E., "Parental attributions concerning the causes and controllability of adolescent depression" (2007). Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations. 30. http://commons.emich.edu/theses/30 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses, and Doctoral Dissertations, and Graduate Capstone Projects at DigitalCommons@EMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@EMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PARENTAL ATTRIBUTIONS CONCERNING THE CAUSES AND CONTROLLABILITY OF ADOLESCENT DEPRESSION by Joan E. McDowell Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Psychology Eastern Michigan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dissertation Committee: Carol Freedman-Doan, Ph.D., Chair Michelle Byrd, Ph.D. Renee Lajiness-O’Neill, Ph.D. Marilyn Wedenoja, Ph.D. May 2007 Ypsilanti, Michigan Parental Attributions ii APPROVAL PARENTAL ATTRIBUTIONS CONCERNING THE CAUSES AND CONTROLLABILITY OF ADOLESCENT DEPRESSION Joan McDowell APPROVED: ______________________________________________ _________________________ Carol Freedman-Doan, Ph.D. Date Chair ______________________________________________ _________________________ Michelle Byrd, Ph.D. Date Committee Member ______________________________________________ _________________________ Renee Lajiness-O’Neill, Ph.D. Date Committee Member ______________________________________________ _________________________ Marilyn Wedenoja, Ph.D. Date Committee Member ______________________________________________ _________________________ John Knapp, Ph.D. Date Department Head ______________________________________________ _________________________ Deborah deLaski-Smith, Ph.D. Date Interim Dean of the Graduate School Parental Attributions iii Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking my dissertation committee for their support and encouragement on this study. Specifically, I am grateful to Dr. Carol Freedman-Doan for her guidance throughout my graduate career and for allowing me to pursue my specific research interests. Drs. Michelle Byrd and Renee Lajiness-O’Neill both provided timely feedback to refine the methodology in this study. And Dr. Marilyn Wedenoja was a kind and supportive addition to the committee and always offered an open door to her office. I would like to express my appreciation to the EMU Graduate School for supporting this study through the Research Support Fund. The award helped to defray some of the costs of this research. Sincere thanks go to the discussion board and web site administrators who allowed me to contact their members to recruit participants for data collection. I am also grateful to the many parents who took the time to fill out the questionnaire online. Their dedication to the progress of research in this area is laudable, considering that they did not have an in- person request to encourage their participation. Last, but certainly not least, I am especially grateful for the support of my family, who never once complained about the changes to all of our schedules, eating habits, and so forth that were necessary during my graduate career. Parental Attributions iv Abstract The primary purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between parental attributions concerning adolescent depression and levels of negative expressed emotion (EE) within the home by breaking down attributional beliefs into two dimensions: the etiology of the disorder and the controllability of the symptoms. This study included 154 parents of adolescents who filled out an online survey. Participants were predominantly female and identified themselves as White/non-Hispanic. Among the teens, each gender was relatively well-represented. Mean age of respondents was 44.7, and mean age of the adolescents was 16.0. Of the entire sample, 101 were identified as the clinical group (having a teen with depression). The questionnaire included a section developed to measure specific attributions related to depression, the Children’s Depression Inventory – Parent Version (Kovacs, 2002), and the Level of Expressed Emotion Scale (Cole & Kazarian, 1988). Results showed that controllability attributions are related to measures of expressed emotion (p < .01), while beliefs about causality had mixed results. It is suggested by this study that beliefs regarding controllability and causal beliefs may be less related than previous researchers suspected, and controllability beliefs may be more salient to theories of EE. Parental Attributions v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ...........................................................................................................................1 Adolescent Depression ..........................................................................................................4 Distinguishing Between Depressed Mood, Depressive Syndrome, and Clinical Depression ...................................................................................................5 Etiological Models ..........................................................................................................8 Interpersonal Links .............................................................................................................. 14 Bi-directional Influences ................................................................................................ 15 Expressed Emotion ........................................................................................................ 20 Attributions and EE ....................................................................................................... 28 Purpose of the Current Study ............................................................................................... 39 Method ................................................................................................................................ 42 Participants .................................................................................................................... 42 Measures and Procedure ................................................................................................ 46 Results ................................................................................................................................ 49 Preliminary Analyses ..................................................................................................... 49 Analysis of Differences between Groups ....................................................................... 52 Relationship between Causal and Controllability Attributions ........................................ 57 Attributions and EE ....................................................................................................... 58 Parental Attributions vi Controllability Attributions and Individual Characteristics ............................................. 62 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 65 Relationship between Causal and Controllability Attributions ........................................ 65 Attributions and EE ....................................................................................................... 67 Differences between Groups .......................................................................................... 72 Individual Characteristics and Controllability ................................................................ 75 Limitations and Future Directions .................................................................................. 77 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 78 References ........................................................................................................................... 81 APPENDIX A: List of Recruitment Websites .................................................................... 103 APPENDIX B: Recruitment Letter .................................................................................... 104 APPENDIX C: HSRC Approval ........................................................................................ 105 APPENDIX D: Depression Attribution Questionnaire ....................................................... 106 APPENDIX E: Child Depression Inventory – Parent Version ............................................ 109 APPENDIX F: Level of Expressed Emotion Scale – Relative