A Developmental Approach to Depression in Childhood and Adolescence

This paper attempts to offer some preliminary guidelines towards an understanding of depression-like states in children and adolescents, utilizing a predominantly developmental framework. In the years since Rie's (1966) comprehensive review of the literature on depression in childhood, numerous articles and an entire symposium (Annell, 1971) have appeared on the subject. Yet, despite this relative profusion of contributions (in contrast to the paucity of literature prior to the 1960s), there is still a good deal of disagreement as to the criteria for diagnosis, the childhood manifestations of depression, the underlying psychological mechanisms, and the possibility of the existence of a true depressive illness prior to puberty. In an effort to clarify the status of depression in childhood, the following points will receive special attention: the conceptualization of depression as a primary affect necessitating specific cognitive preconditions, the relationship of depression to loss, and the child's ability to experience, express, or defend against feelings of depression at various stages of development.