J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc.  2005 Jan;44(1):89-97.

Effects of Negative Automatic Thoughts on Depression in Adolescence

• Ha EH
• Song DH

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.

Keyword

Depression; Negative automatic thought; Adolescence

MeSH Terms

Adolescent*
Anxiety
Cognition
Depression*
Female
Humans
Male
Surveys and Questionnaires