Cognitive social skills and social self-appraisal in depressed adolescents.

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine whether the social cognitive skills and social self-appraisal of depressed adolescents differed from those of other adolescents with nonaffective psychiatric disorders or of adolescents free from disorder. Within the age range of 15 to 19, 38 depressed adolescent outpatients (14 boys, 24 girls); 31 nondepressed adolescent outpatients (17 boys, 14 girls); and 34 normal high-school students (18 boys, 16 girls) were assessed using the following dependent measures: Interpersonal Negotiation Interview, Adolescent Social Problem Solving Measure, Adolescent Self Perception Profile, and Interpersonal Dependency Inventory. Depressed adolescents were found to have significantly more negative self-concepts and significantly less social self-confidence than either comparison group. They did not differ from the other adolescents in either social problem-solving ability or interpersonal understanding. These results indicate that depressed adolescents have unique deficits in social self-evaluation which contribute to ineffective social behavior and the maintenance of dysphoric affect. Treatment of social skill deficits should be based on a careful assessment of the patient's functioning in this area.