The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics
2010 , Vol 52 , Num 1
Sense of identity and depression in adolescents
1Department of Psychiatry, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, and 2Student Health Center, Middle East Technical
University, Ankara, Turkey
The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between sense
of identity and depression in a group of adolescents. Thirty-one depressed
adolescents and 31 control subjects were included in the study. They were
evaluated using the Sense of Identity Assessment Form (SIAF), Hamilton
Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Beck
Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Depressed adolescents were reevaluated during the
eighth week of antidepressant treatment. Higher baseline SIAF scores were
detected in depressed adolescents as compared with non-depressed subjects.
After antidepressant treatment, there was a significant decrease in SIAF
scores in the depression group. Correlation analysis indicated that there are
significant, positive relationships between SIAF, depression, and anxiety scores.
The regression analysis results suggested that the change in SIAF scores can
accurately predict 91.6% of the remitters and 42.8% of the non-remitters.
Collectively, these findings indicate that there is a close association between
depression symptoms and identity confusion-related distress in adolescents.
Keywords :
depression, identity confusion, adolescence.