Adolescent depression and family cohesion
Description
This study examined how levels of family cohesion, as postulated by Minuchin et al, (1967) impacted affective disorders in adolescents. Fifty-five families participated in this research. The FACES III was utilized to determine the families level of cohesion. Three of the SCL-90-R's diagnostic syndrome clusters (depression, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder) were used to predict psychopathology in the adolescent. The results suggested that disengaged levels of family cohesion produced significant levels of affective disorders in adolescents when compared to separated/connected families. This finding is opposite to what Minuchin et al, (1967) predicted. One postulate for these results is that families with adolescents at the 'launching stage' in the family life cycle, will accomodate their level of cohesion as an adaptation to the adolescent moving closer to adult status. This is congruent with Olson et al. (1983) hypothesis on family development. A second possibility this study may suggest is that disengaged families, with their lack of boundaries and ties, could develop members with affective disorders. This supports the attachment (loss of significant other) and developmental (object loss) theories of depression. This study does support that Minuchin et al. (1967) and Olson et al. (1983) theories that family styles in the middle of the family cohesion continuum are significantly less likely to produce psychopathology