Effects of Negative Automatic Thoughts on Depression in Adolescence / 신경정신의학

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of negative automatic thoughts on depression in adolescence. METHODS: The participants were 1037 middle school students (521 boys and 516 girls) and 872 high school students (415 boys and 457 girls). They completed self administered questionnaires; The CES-D and the K-CATS. The ANOVA tests were conducted with gender (2 levels) and grade (5 levels) as independent variables, and Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis also were conducted. RESULTS: The results showed that both depression and negative automatic thoughts are very high in females with significant age differences; highest in the age of 17, the late adolescence. And depression was significantly predicted by the combination of depression cognition, social anxiety cognition, and physical threat cognition, with 51% estimation. Depression cognition and social anxiety cognition significantly predicted depression in males in 45%. In females, depression cognition, social anxiety cognition, and physical threat cognition predicted depression in 57%. CONCLUSION: Negative thoughts have high impacts on depression, and depression cognition has a significant impact particularly on the depressinon of females. The limitations of the present study and directions for the future research were discussed.