Mara Marcheschi

Self-reported depressive symptoms in a school sample of Italian children and adolescents.

This study reports on self-reported depressive symptoms, assessed with the Childrens Depression Inventory (CDI), in a school sample of 685 Italian students. The participants were 254 males and 431 females, the age range of the subjects was 8 to 17 years (mean age 13.0 ± 2.8 years). The CDI mean score was 10.49 ± 2.76. According to our data, about 10% of the subjects scored higher than the clinical threshold of 20. More than 1/3 of the students reported thoughts of death, but only 2.2% had explicit suicidal ideation. Girls scored higher than boys, and young adolescents (11–13 years) scored lower than pre-pubertal children and older adolescents, and showed fewer thoughts of death. Factorial analysis yielded seven factors, a general factor with no predominant theme, two factors related to academic self-image and body image, and four related to anhedonia-withdrawal, hypocondria-asthenia, irritability-opposition, and loss of appetite.

Depression and School Functioning in Non-Referred Adolescents: A Pilot Study

Self-image and self-perceived competencies have been considered to be related to depression in childhood and adolescence. Data from literature points to school functioning as one of the most important factors in self-esteem and self-worth during adolescence. Academic self image, defined as the way adolescents represent themselves as students, directly affects the global self-image; for this reason it has important psychopathological implications. The major aim of this preliminary report is to specifically analyze the relationship between academic self-image (assessed with a specific questionnaire), and self-reported depressive symptoms (assessed with the Childrens Depression Inventory) in a school sample 150 adolescents. Our data indicate that the emotional beliefs about schooling and learning were significantly related to depressive symptomatology. Females scored higher in CDI and school anxiety. A real school failure did not affect the academic self image. These data seem to suggest that different components of the academic self-image can be differently associated with depressive feelings.

Impulsive-reflective cognitive style, metacognition, and emotion in adolescence.

The study investigated the relationship between reflective or impulsive cognitive style, metacognitive functioning, and depression in young adolescents. Metacognitive functioning (metacognitive knowledge about reading and memory, monitoring of text comprehension) and self-reported depressive feelings were analyzed in a group of subjects who showed a Reflective or Impulsive cognitive style. The sample consisted of 56 junior high-school students (Grades 6, 7, and 8) selected from a larger original group of 61 subjects. We excluded from the original group those with an IQ below 75 on both the Verbal and Performance subscales on the short form of the WISC–R, those reported by teachers to have a severe learning disability, and those that did not complete the test battery due to long absences from school. The reflective-impulsive cognitive style was identified with the Matching Familiar Figures Test-20. Using the median of the distribution for both Latency (17 sec. per item) and Errors (9 errors) on this task, the sample was divided in four partially overlapping subgroups: 16 with Impulsive cognitive style (Latency below the median, Errors above the median), 13 with Reflective cognitive style (Latency above the median, Error below the median), 4 fast and accurate (both scores below the median), and 11 slow and inaccurate (both scores above the median). Twelve subjects with one or both scores coinciding with the critical value (median) were excluded. Analysis showed that subjects with Impulsive cognitive style had significantly lower scores than those with Reflective cognitive style in monitoring of comprehension of text. No differences were found on monitoring by eighth graders, irrespective of cognitive style. No differences between the two groups were found in metacognitive knowledge. Subjects with Impulsive cognitive style had significantly higher scores than subjects with Reflective cognitive style on a self-rating scale for childhood depression, the Childrens Depression Inventory. The implications of these data are discussed.

Depressive Symptoms and Academic Self-Image in Adolescence

The aim of this paper was to specifically analyse the relationship between the different components of academic self-image, defined as the way adolescents represent themselves as students, and self-reported depressive symptoms, assessed with the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), in a non-clinical sample of 298 adolescents. We considered both adolescents’ beliefs about their own cognitive functioning in academic performance and beliefs about their emotional attitude in achievement situations. Our data indicate that the pattern of correlation between emotional beliefs about schooling and learning are significantly related to CDI scores, but this correlation is not evident for the cognitive beliefs. This pattern of correlation is affected by actual school functioning, because correlation between CDI and beliefs is much more significant in subjects without school failure. Differences between gender in CDI scores, beliefs about schooling and learning, and pattern of correlation are considered. These results can enable to focus supporting psychological interventions on more specific targets.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric condition during childhood and adolescence, which continues to be underestimated and undertreated. For these reasons, it constitutes a primary cause of major disabilities in those ages and, sometimes, of permanent impairments later on. In these last few years, childhood and adolescence OCD has attracted an increasing focus which has promoted a deeper awareness of this illness, a better recognition with earlier interventions, as well as the set-up of more tailored and specific strategies, including psychotropic drugs. The aim of this paper is to present a critical review of paediatric OCD, with a special attention towards the most compelling reports available up to now and towards the most interesting areas for future research.

DEPRESSION IN ADOLESCENTS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION: A CLINICAL STUDY

Mental retardation (MR) has often been considered an intellectual impairment principally requiring educational or social interventions; hence, the psychiatric dimension of the problem has been neglected (Potter, 1971). This is particularly true for children and adolescents with MR (Masi et al., 1996). The impact of MR on personality development is confirmed by psychopathological vulnerability of people with MR (Masi, 1997). According to the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), all the types of mental disorders can be observed in these subjects, with a prevalence estimated to be at least 3 or 4 times higher than in the general population. Rutter et al. (1970) in their epidemiological study in the isle of Wight examined psychiatric and behavioural problems in all 9 and 10 year old with IQ under 70, screened by group IQ test, then assessed with individual WISC (Weschler, 1974) (59 subjects). They used standardised parent