Overview
Depression in adolescents is a mental health disorder occurring during the developmental period of adolescence, characterized by persistent sadness, irritability, hopelessness, and loss of interest or pleasure, together with disturbances of sleep, appetite, concentration, and self-worth that impair functioning at school, at home, and in relationships. Its onset during a critical phase of cognitive, emotional, and social development can have lasting consequences, making early recognition and treatment important. Research in this area examines the cognitive and family-based mechanisms that contribute to depressive symptoms, including dysfunctional attitudes that longitudinally predict depressive, eating-disorder, and aggressive symptoms in young people, and patterns of caregiver-child interaction such as co-rumination that bear on treatment outcomes in rumination-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy. The development of identity and autobiographical memory in adolescence is also linked to vulnerability, with disruptions implicated in depression and aggressiveness. Contextual and social determinants matter as well, including socioeconomic and environmental factors and the availability of social support, while network analyses of core and activating symptoms help characterize the structure of depressive presentations. Together this work points to multifactorial origins spanning cognition, family processes, developmental tasks, and social context. Understanding these contributors supports timely diagnosis and the targeting of psychological and psychosocial interventions to reduce the burden of adolescent depression.
Research published in this journal
8 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
How this research is being cited
The 8 articles above have been cited 96 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
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Mental Health Discourses on Descendants of Indian Indentured Labourers in Suriname: A Scoping Review2026 · International Journal of Social Psychiatry
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2026 · BMC Psychology
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2026 · Family Relations
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2026 · Behavioral Sciences
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2026 · British Journal of Guidance & Counselling
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2025 · Journal of Marital and Family Therapy
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2025 · Journal of Black Psychology
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2025 · Cognition, Technology & Work
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Depression in Adolescents, linking to each citing work.