Getting a Grip on My Depression: How Latina Adolescents Experience, Self-Manage, and Seek Treatment for Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

Latina (female) adolescents are more likely to experience depressive symptoms and less likely to receive mental health services than their non-Latina White peers. We aimed to develop a framework that explains how Latina adolescents experience, self-manage, and seek treatment for depressive symptoms. Latina young women ( n = 25, M age = 16.8 years) who experienced depressive symptoms during adolescence were recruited from clinical and community settings and interviewed about experiences with depressive symptoms. The framework was developed using constructivist grounded theory methods. Participants experienced a psychosocial problem that we labeled being overburdened and becoming depressed. They responded to this problem through a five-phase psychosocial process that we labeled Getting a Grip on My Depression. Family members, peer groups, and mainstream authorities were influential in how participants experienced these phases. Future research should further develop this framework in diverse samples of Latino/a youth. Clinicians can use this framework in discussions with Latina adolescents about depressive symptoms.

182. The Influence of Peer Relationships on Latina Adolescents’ Experiences with Depressive Symptoms

“…A more detailed description of the parent study methods has been published elsewhere (Stafford, Aalsma, Bigatti, Oruche, & Draucker, 2019). In summary, however, a major finding of the parent study was that the adolescents' depressive symptoms unfolded across several major processes.…”

“…A qualitative descriptive study (Sandelowski, 2000) using thematic analysis methods (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was conducted to identify patterns in how peers influenced Latina adolescents' experiences with depressive symptoms over time. This secondary analysis differed from the purpose of the parent study which was to broadly describe the process by which Latina adolescents experience, self-manage, and seek treatment for depressive symptoms; the results of the parent study have been published elsewhere (Stafford, Aalsma, Bigatti, Oruche, & Draucker, 2019). Thematic analysis is a systematic, yet flexible, qualitative method used to identify and analyze patterns within data and can be used within a variety of philosophical perspectives (Braun & Clarke, 2006).…”

Practicing the Ideal Depressed Self: Young Professional Women’s Accounts of Managing Depression

“…The present study aims to fill this gap. Existing research suggests that how individuals experience and cope with depression is not only gendered, for instance, describing its onset as “sudden and dramatic” (men) versus “gradual” (women; Johansson et al, 2009, p. 636), but also influenced by other identity positions such as ethnicity (Stafford et al, 2019) and cultural background (Bhattacharya et al, 2019). It, therefore, appears expedient to consider how the intersection of various identity positions—in this case, gender, age, class, and cultural background—shapes the experience and “management” of depression.…”

Under- or Overtreatment of Mental Distress? Practices, Consequences, and Resistance in the Field of Mental Health Care

“…Drawing on the narratives of health care providers and users of services with depression or anxiety disorders, I argue that high perceived accessibility of care might mask important ideologically laden issues and gaps in the treatment system that result in overtreatment of mild distress while more severe mental illness remains undertreated. While there is ample literature addressing medicalization and professional help seeking for mental health problems including recent publications in this journal (e.g., Savage et al, 2016; Stafford et al, 2019; Taylor, 2020), most of the empirical evidence comes from North America or other English-speaking countries (Doblyte & Jiménez-Mejías, 2017; Van den Bogaert et al, 2017). The article, therefore, contributes to qualitative research on health care seeking that considers different institutional contexts.…”