Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:34:40.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prevalence of Self-Reported Depressive Symptoms and Associated Social Factors in Mothers in Dunedin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Rob McGee
Affiliation:
Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Otago Medical School, P. O. Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand
Sheila Williams
Affiliation:
Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit
Javad H. Kashani
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Missouri, Columbia, 803 Stadium Rd., Columbia, Missouri, USA
Phil A. Silva
Affiliation:
Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit

Summary

A large sample of women (n = 899) from Dunedin, New Zealand, completed a self-report questionnaire on depressive symptoms. On this basis, about 8 per cent of the sample were identified as having major depressive disorder. These women tended to have a history of previously reported psychological symptoms and formal treatment for depression. A significantly high proportion of the depressed group had been young at first pregnancy and had since been separated from their partners. The depressed women also reported more behaviour problems in their children, but these reports were not confirmed by teachers' reports or by the children's self-reports, suggesting a response bias in depressed women towards reporting problems.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Anderson, J., Williams, S. & Silva, P. A. (1983) Maternal and self report of depressive symptoms in nine-year-old children. In preparation.Google Scholar
Boyd, J. H. & Weissman, M. M. (1981) Epidemiology of affective disorders: a re-examination and future directions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 1039–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bromet, E. J., Solomon, Z. H., Dunn, L. O. & Nicklas, N. N. (1982) Affective disorder in mothers of young children. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 30–6.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Byrne, D. G. (1980) The prevalence of symptoms of depression in an Australian general population. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 14, 6571.Google Scholar
Dodge, J. & Silva, P. A. (1980) A study of mother's health. New Zealand Medical Journal, 91, 353–5.Google Scholar
Elley, W. B. & Irving, J. C. (1972) A socio-economic index for New Zealand based on levels of education and income from the 1966 census. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 7, 155–67.Google Scholar
Elley, W. B. & Irving, J. C. (1976) Revised socio-economic index for New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 11, 2536.Google Scholar
Everitt, B. S. (1977) The Analysis of Contingency Tables, p. 44. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1964) Manual of the Eysenck Personality Inventory. London: London University Press.Google Scholar
Feinberg, S. E. (1978) The Analysis of Cross-Classified Categorical Data. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hirschfeld, R. M. A. & Cross, C. K. (1982) Epidemiology of affective disorders: psychosocial risk factors. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 3546.Google Scholar
Kashani, J. H., McGee, R., Clarkson, S. E., Anderson, J. C., Walton, L. A., Williams, S. M., Silva, P. A., Robins, A. J., McKnew, D. H. & Cytryn, L. (1983) Depression in a sample of nine year old children; prevalence and associated characteristics. Archives of General Psychiatry. In Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGee, R. & Silva, P. A. (1982) A Thousand New Zealand Children: Their Health and Development From Birth to Seven. Medical Research Council of New Zealand, Special Report Series No. 8.Google Scholar
Miller, R. G. (1966) Simultaneous Statistical Inference. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Myers, J. K. & Weissman, M. M. (1980) Use of a self-report symptom scale to detect depression in a community sample. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 1081–4.Google Scholar
New Zealand Department of Statistics (1976) New Zealand Official Yearbook—1976. Wellington N.Z.: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Nunnally, J. C. (1967) Psychometric Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Richman, N., Stevenson, J. & Graham, P. (1975) Prevalence of behaviour problems in three year old children: an epidemiological study in a London borough. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16, 277–87.Google Scholar
Roy, A. (1978) Vulnerability factors and depression in women. British Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 106–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M., Tizard, J. & Whitmore, K. (1970) Education, Health and Behaviour. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Sandberg, S. T., Wieselberg, M. & Shaffer, D. (1980) Hyperkinetic and conduct problem children in a primary school population: some epidemiological considerations. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 293311.Google Scholar
Solomon, Z. & Bromet, E. (1982) The role of social factors in affective disorder: an assessment of the vulnerability model of Brown and his colleagues. Psychological Medicine, 12, 123–30.Google Scholar
Werry, J. S. & Carlielle, J. (1983) The nuclear family, suburban neurosis and iatrogenesis in Auckland mothers of young children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 22, 172–9.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.