A qualitative exploration of depressed female Iranian adolescents' attachment narratives

It is assumed that depressed and suicidal adolescents struggle with issues reflecting insecure attachment. However, less is known about which insecure attachment-related themes characterize depression and suicidality in adolescents. To explore this further, semi-structured in-depth interview were co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archives of psychiatric nursing 2024-06, Vol.50, p.40-48
Main Authors: Pouravari, Minoo, Finet, Chloë, Panaghi, Leili, Hosseinian, Simin, Bosmans, Guy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior - psychology
Adolescents
Attachment
Depression
Depression - psychology
Female
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Iran
Narration
Object Attachment
Parent-Child Relations
Parenting - psychology
Qualitative
Qualitative Research
Suicidal Ideation
Suicide
Suicide, Attempted - psychology
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Summary:It is assumed that depressed and suicidal adolescents struggle with issues reflecting insecure attachment. However, less is known about which insecure attachment-related themes characterize depression and suicidality in adolescents. To explore this further, semi-structured in-depth interview were conducted with 18 Iranian female adolescents (Mage = 16.6 ± 0.70), with depression and/or suicidal ideation or suicide attempts, who self-reported being insecurely attached. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Three main themes were identified from the data: (1) quality of parenting, (2) attachment representation, and (3) attachment behavior. The theme parenting quality included the subthemes “emotionally absent”, “emotionally supportive”, “psychologically controlling”, “overprotective”, “punitive”, “aggressive”, and “passive”. The theme attachment representation comprised: “not accepting”, “not feeling loved”, “not feeling understood”, “lack of intimacy”, “unreliable”, “reliable”, “mixed emotions”, “hatred”, and “dismiss and devaluation”. The theme attachment behavior included “aggression”, “relational avoidance”, and “emotional role reversal”. Findings point to the possible usefulness of attachment-based interventions to treat suicidal adolescents and their families in Iran. However, the results also showed culture-specific themes, pointing at the father-daughter relationship's unique importance, which deserves special attention in attachment-based interventions.
ISSN:0883-9417
1532-8228
DOI:10.1016/j.apnu.2024.03.006