The psychosocial functioning and family environment of depressed adolescents.

Objective: This study examined measures of functional impairment and family relations in a sample of 62 adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 38 normal controls with no history of psychiatric illness.

Method: Ratings of the following domains were obtained: mother-child relations, father-child relations, spousal relations, sibling relations, peer relations, and school performance. Ratings of each domain for the 3-month period preceding the assessment were derived from information obtained using a semistructured interview administered independently to the adolescents and one of their parents.

Results: Adolescents with MDD were found to have severe difficulties in all areas. Ninety percent of the depressed adolescents had scores greater than 2 SD above the mean of the normal controls on one or more of the domain ratings. In addition, adolescents with difficulties in parent-child relations were more likely than those adolescents without problems in family relations to have difficulties in peer relations and school performance.

Conclusions: The authors discuss the importance of systematically examining psychosocial variables in future studies of the etiology, course, and treatment of MDD in adolescents.