Self-criticism and dependency in adolescents with depression: Associations with clinical features and psychological...

The personality dimensions of self-criticism and dependency have been shown to confer vulnerability to depression, and psychopathology more broadly, in adults. However, evidence for the roles of these personality dimensions in young people is weaker, particularly because most studies in this area have been conducted in non-clinical samples. The current study aimed to examine associations among self-criticism, dependency and a wide array of indices of interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning in a large sample of clinically depressed adolescents.

The study sample consisted of 465 adolescents with clinical depression. Associations among self-criticism, dependency and indices of clinical symptoms and intrapersonal functioning (e.g., depression, anxiety, antisocial behaviour, obsessive-compulsive features, self-harm and suicidality) and interpersonal functioning (i.e., friendship, family functioning and parenting as reported by adolescents) were examined using correlation and multiple regression analyses.

Consistent with findings in adults, self-criticism was more consistently associated with indices of maladaptive functioning than dependency. There was also evidence for gender incongruence effects in that self-criticism in girls and dependency in boys were associated with increased anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and suicidal ideation.

This is the first study in a large sample of clinically depressed adolescents to demonstrate that the personality dimensions of self-criticism and dependency are associated with clinical features and functioning. The implications of these findings for future research on the role of these personality dimensions in adolescent depression are discussed.