Adolescent depression and the susceptibility to helplessness

Subjects scoring above and below a sample median on the Beck Depression Inventory were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions in which they were exposed to either (1) an unsolvable task accompanied by unavoidable aversive noise, (2) an identical but solvable task whose solution prevented the noise, or conditions designed to control for the effects of (3) the aversiveness of the noise, or (4) possible baseline performance differences between subject groups. The adolescents in the depressed group who were exposed to the unsolvable task showed a significant performance deficit on a subsequent solvable task when compared to their counterparts in the other three conditions. Subjects in the nondepressed group showed no such deficit, suggesting that as level of depressive symptomatology increases, adolescents become more vulnerable to suffering a disruption of active coping (effort, persistence, problem solving) when confronted with uncontrollable events. Theoretical and treatment issues related to adolescent depression are discussed.