Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

8-2024

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Counseling and Human Development

Degree Program

Counseling and Personnel Services, PhD

Committee Chair

Pössel, Patrick

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Hopkins, Katy

Committee Member

Hopkins, Katy

Committee Member

Mitchelle, Amanda

Committee Member

Tucker, Sarah

Author's Keywords

Discrimination; cortisol; depression; adolescents; attribution style

Abstract

The aim of our study was to integrate the chronic stressor of Perceived Everyday Discrimination (PED) into the Hopelessness Theory of Depression with a focus on the comorbidity between physical and mental health by way of depressive symptoms and cortisol in adolescents. Research has shown that cognitive diatheses mediate the relation between stress and depressive symptoms and cortisol predicts depression. We hypothesized that Negative Attribution Style (NAS) and cortisol would mediate the relation between PED and depressive symptoms. Altogether, 99 adolescents (mean age: 14.10 years, 36.4% female; 63.6% male; ethnicity: 2% Latinx; 98.2 % non-Latinx; race: 41.4% Black, 34.8% White, 7.1% Mixed Race, 2% Other Race), from an urban public high school, completed the Everyday Discrimination Scale, Children’s Cognitive Style Questionnaire, and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Salivary cortisol was also collected. As predicted, NAS mediated the relation between PED and depressive symptoms. Contrary to our hypothesis, cortisol did not mediate the relation between PED and depressive symptoms, even when NAS was also included as a mediator. Clinicians should provide cognitive based psychotherapy and intervene at a societal level to reduce the experience of PED.

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