Blue kaleidoscope: disentangling family perspectives in the context of adolescent depression

Abstract

Families consist of complex dynamics; the many unique parts and their mutual influences should be considered if one wants to understand the wellbeing of individual family members. In this doctoral dissertation by Wilma Wentholt (Clinical Psychology, Leiden University), multiple perspectives within families were disentangled to gain a deeper understanding of the relation between parenting and adolescent depression.

Wilma was part of the RE-PAIR study, a research project led by prof. Bernet Elzinga and funded by NWO-Vici. In her multi-method dissertation, Wilma mainly worked with videotaped parent-adolescent interactions. Three perspectives on parenting were derived from these interactions and linked to adolescent mood and depression: more ‘objective’ levels of parenting (rated by independent observers), subjective experiences of adolescents and of parents. Results show that parenting matters and that perspectives matter. Each family perspective uniquely relates to adolescent mood and depression. In research as well as practice, it is important to inquire or consider multiple perspectives. Different perspectives provide different insights, that should not be confused.