To see whther crisis support protects against onset depression even if their is low self esteem and a lack of general support
To see if a lack of support and low self esteem were vulnerability factors in depression
To see if the support of a husband, partner close relationship reduces the risk of depression (only women took part)
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Procedures
Women with husbands in a manual occupation with at least 1 child under 18 and were aged between 18-50 were recruited through their GP
435 women were chosen who fitted the requirements and 395 were involved in the first part of the study.
At first contact measures of self esteem, personal ties and psychriatric histories were taken
12 months later they were checked for any onset psychriatric disorder over that period and measures of social support and life event stress were also taken
Interviews were used to gather the data and was carried out bu experienced interviewers.
Some women were interviewed intensively to check for reliability
There was inter-rater reliabilty
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Results
In all 353 women agreed to the follow up interview (89% of the original sample)
There were 50 cases of depression at first contact and these women were excluded.
therefore 303 were interviewed to see if they had developed depression over the 12 months. About half of them (150) had experienced a severe event or major difficulty and 32 women had onset depression.
Of those 32 women , 91% had experienced a severe life event in the 6 months prior to the on set de[ression (involving loss, failure or disappointment)
Self esteem was looked at as well as a provoking agent (severe life event), 33% of those with a negative eveualtion of themselves developed depression in a response to a provoking agent (severe life event)
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Compared to 13 % who developed depression in a response to a provoking agent but did not have a negative evealuation of self
Suggesting that those with low self esteem are more likely to develop depression when faced with a provoking agent than those with high self esteem.
With regard to social support , 94% of those women who had core crisis support said that it was helpful.
Of those women who felt let down with regard to support 42% (14 out 33) developed depression. Of those without support either at first contact or later , 44% developed depression.
Suggesting that social support is an important factor in whether someone develops depression or not.
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Conclusions
That those who are married or had a close tie were liekly to develop depression (unless they confided in their husband and felt let down)
Low self esteem is implicated in the onset of depression after a provoking agent. Self esteem in itself might be linked to whether a person has social support.
A povoking agent seems to be becessary for the onset off depression in most cases
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Evaluation- Strengths
Strengths
The interviews gave the required deph and deatil needed for analysis of complex issues
There was inter-rater reliability which strengthens findings.
Interviewing tends to gather valid data given the depth and deatl, and trained interviewers using semi structed interviews should be able to explore in the necessary depth
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Evualtion - Weaknesses
Qualitive data was reduced to quantative data to give percentages., which means some of the information could have been lost- such as the role of the husband.
This was a study of working class women with one child under 18 at home and in a specific age range, so generalising it to all women might not be apporiate
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