Brown et al (1986) - study on unipolar depression - description and evaluation

/study on depression - Brown et al (1986)

The aim of the study was to see whether stressful life events may trigger depression, to see whether low self-esteem may make you more prone to depression, and to see whether social support reduces the risk of depression (having a husband or other close tie).

Volunteer sampling was used in the study, it was all run through a doctor’s practise in Islington. Registered women that fit the criteria were contacted (letter) about whether they would like to participate or not. To fit the criteria you had to be either a single mother/women between ages 18-50, with a husband in manual occupation and at least one child under 18.

They received 435 replies and through random sampling 353 were selected. However, 50 participants dropped out as they already had depression, so only 303 participants made it all the way through the study.

There were 2 points of contact in the study. During the first contact, they interviewed the participants using semi-structured interviews to find out about their self-esteem, their personal ties (to measure the kind of social support they were getting), and their psychiatric history.

2nd point of contact happened a year later. Again, semi-structured interviews were used. This time they were trying to find out whether any onset of psychiatric disorders happened in the last twelve months, whether there were any stressful life events (triggers), and level of social support over the past year.

Brown also did a mini reliability study in which 21 participants were interviewed twice to test inter-rater reliability. They found satisfactory inter-rater reliability.

Results of the study showed that 32/303 had the onset of depression, and 29/32 (91%) had experienced a stressful life event 6 months prior to the development of depression.

Low self-esteem on its own did not seem…