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Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
A qualitative exploration of depressed female Iranian adolescents' attachment narratives
Minoo Pouravari1, Chloë Finet2, Leili Panaghi3
1Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract:
It is assumed that depressed and suicidal adolescents struggle with issues reflecting insecure attachment. However, less is known about which insecure attachment-related themes characterize depression and suicidality in adolescents. To explore this further, semi-structured in-depth interview were conducted with 18 Iranian female adolescents (Mage = 16.6 ± 0.70), with depression and/or suicidal ideation or suicide attempts, who self-reported being insecurely attached. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Three main themes were identified from the data: (1) quality of parenting, (2) attachment representation, and (3) attachment behavior. The theme parenting quality included the subthemes "emotionally absent", "emotionally supportive", "psychologically controlling", "overprotective", "punitive", "aggressive", and "passive". The theme attachment representation comprised: "not accepting", "not feeling loved", "not feeling understood", "lack of intimacy", "unreliable", "reliable", "mixed emotions", "hatred", and "dismiss and devaluation". The theme attachment behavior included "aggression", "relational avoidance", and "emotional role reversal". Findings point to the possible usefulness of attachment-based interventions to treat suicidal adolescents and their families in Iran. However, the results also showed culture-specific themes, pointing at the father-daughter relationship's unique importance, which deserves special attention in attachment-based interventions.
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