The present investigation evaluated hopelessness, depression, and suicidal intent among children (8 to 13 years old) hospitalized on a psychiatric intensive care service. A hopelessness scale, modeled after the adult version, was developed and administered to 66 children along with measures of depression (Children's Depression Inventory, Bellevue Index of Depression, Depression Symptom Checklist) and self-esteem (Self-Esteem Inventory). As predicted, children who scored high on the hopelessness scale showed significantly more severe depression and lower self-esteem than children who scored low on the scale. Children who evinced suicidal attempt or ideation, independently assessed at intake diagnosis, showed greater hopelessness than children who did not evince intent. Suicidal intent was more consistently correlated with hopelessness than with depression, a finding parallel to results obtained with adults. Overall, the present findings suggest that negative expectations toward oneself and the future can be assessed in children and are related both to depression and suicidal intent.

The present investigation examined the relation of direct observations of overt behavior to depression among 62 child psychiatric inpatients (ages 8-13 years old). Childhood depression was assessed by self-report and interview measures administered separately to children and their mothers. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980) diagnoses were also obtained from direct interviews and were supplemented with clinical information. Direct observations of the children were obtained during free-time periods over several days. Multiple behaviors were observed and coded into one of three categories: social activity (e.g., talking with others and playing games), solitary behavior (e.g., working alone on a task and playing alone), and affect-related expression (e.g., smiling and frowning). Depressed children engaged in significantly less social activity and exhibited less affect-related expression than did their nondepressed peers. Overt behavioral measures were consistently related to parent-completed but not to child-completed measures of depression. The present findings suggest that depressive symptoms are reflected in diverse behaviors in everyday life. Finer grained analyses of behavior are needed to follow up these results.Research on childhood depression has increased considerably in recent years (see Cantwell & Carlson, 1983;Petti, 1983). Advances can be attributed in part to the emergence of a large number of assessment techniques. Most of the measures currently available consist of questionnaires and interviews administered to children or their parents (Kazdin & Petti, 1982;Kovacs, 1981). Although these measures have been useful in identifying depression and its correlates, they represent a relatively restricted range of assessment techniques. Also, self-and parentreport measures raise interpretive problems

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract