Premium
Views of young people with depression about family and significant other support: Interpretative phenomenological analysis study
Author(s) -
McCann Terence V.,
Lubman Dan I.,
Clark Eileen
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2012.00812.x
Subject(s) - psychology , interpretative phenomenological analysis , coping (psychology) , psychological resilience , social support , depression (economics) , mental health , family support , qualitative research , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , medicine , social psychology , social science , sociology , economics , macroeconomics , physical therapy
Families and significant others have an important role in helping young people cope with depression, but lack of support undermines coping. In this paper, we present the views of young people with depression about the role of family and significant others in assisting them to cope with their illness. An interpretative phenomenological analysis study was undertaken using semistructured, audio‐recorded interviews with 26 young people diagnosed with depression. The findings present two contrasting themes in the data, which reflect the young people's views about the influence of families and significant others in helping them cope with depression. The first, being supportive, highlighted how families and significant others helped through patience, tolerance, understanding, and encouragement; all of which strengthened young people's resilience as they attempted to cope with depression. The second theme, being unsupportive, showed how, in the young people's view, family conflict and change, and living in an unsupportive environment, compromised their ability to cope with depression. The findings suggest that mental health nurses, other clinicians, and primary care practitioners need to increase families' and significant others' understandings of depression and their capacity to support young people in these circumstances.