title: Cognitive deficit or cognitive distortion in childhood depression.
abstract: Three studies were conducted to evaluate cognitive disturbance and depression in children. In Study I, 47 sixth-grade children, including 17 who received a DSM-III diagnosis of depression, and their parents were independently interviewed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children, and they completed the Parent-Child Depression Inventory. Children completed the Children's Depression Inventory, the Matching Familiar Figures Test, and the My Standards Questionnaire. Results of Study I were consistent across raters and measures: Depression was associated with a negative style of processing self-evaluative information, while being unrelated to a processing deficit. A second study was initiated to replicate the results of Study 1 and to extend them to a wider age range of children. Thirty-eight third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children, half of whom were depressed and half of whom indicated a minimum of depressive symptomatology on the Children's Depression Inventory, completed the Matching Familiar Figures Test and the My Standards Questionnaire. Results were very similar to those found in Study 1. A third study was conducted to test whether the self-perceptions of depressed children were accurately negative or negatively distorted, as judged against their teachers' observations of them. Results supported the hypothesis that depressed children exhibit a distorted style of processing self-evaluative information. The implications of the results for theory and treatment were discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122.
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Kendall
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Adam
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010556:Personality Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012649:Self Concept