title: First-year nursing students' accounts of reasons for student depression.
abstract: This study used content analysis and hermeneutics to examine 53 first-year nursing students' surmised reasons for their own or their peers' experiences of feeling down or depressed. Study data were confidential e-mail responses (n = 53) to the question, "If you or another student you know has been feeling down or depressed, can you describe a reason?" Content analysis reflected respondents' sense of their own relatedness to the experience; a general sense of awareness of the occurrence of feeling down or depressed among students; suggested reasons, from general to specific, for those experiences among students; and sense of ownership, from self to others to individuals unspecified, as they described the experience of feeling down or depressed among first-year college students. Hermeneutic analysis revealed seven themes characterizing student experiences of feeling down or depressed. The authors address the context of depression frequently associated with college student life.
authors.affiliation: Kent State University, College of Nursing, Henderson Hall, P.O. Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242, USA. ldzurec@kent.edu
authors.forename: Laura Cox
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Dzurec
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Allchin
authors.forename: Arthur J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Engler
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D015984:Causality; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008132:Loneliness; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010379:Peer Group; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012934:Social Isolation; D012944:Social Support; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology