Being mum's confidant, a boon or bane? Examining gender differences in the association of maternal disclosure with adolescents' depressive feelings

"It's Always among Us. I Can't Act Like It's Not.": Women College Students' Perceptions of Physicians' Implicit Bias

Physicians have an opportunity to provide accurate and timely information about sexual behavior to individuals in their care. However, many young people, and in particular college women, are reticent to talk to their physicians about sexual behavior. One explanation for this reticence may be the fact that physicians' implicit bias has the potential to denigrate communication between physicians and patients. However, little is known about how patients perceive physicians' implicit bias, or to what extent it shapes a patient's beliefs about communicating with their physician. Qualitative analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews was used to describe and explain the way women college students perceive issues concerning physicians' implicit bias. Results were interpreted through the lens of Communication Privacy Management theory and revealed that participants either avoided or limited communication with a physician as a result of anticipating implicit bias. Major themes included "untangling identity and the effects of physicians' implicit bias" and "seeking to understand physicians' cognition and emotion." These findings have the potential to improve communication interventions both for women college students and healthcare professionals by introducing evidence of patients' perceptions of implicit biases along the intersection of race, young age, sexuality, and female gender in physician-patient communication about sexual behavior.

Does suicidal ideation and depressive mood of parents affect their adolescent children's mental health?

BACKGROUND

Depression in adolescence is a social problem that has detrimental effects on an individual's physical and mental health and increases health care burden on families and society. This study investigates the connection between mental illness among parents and their adolescent children in Korea.

METHODS

The sample included parents of 5315 adolescents (12-24 years) and data were obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES) from 2007 to 2017. Family based comprehensive questionnaires were used. Multivariate logistic regression models were performed to estimate odds ratios (ORs) at 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).

RESULTS

The main findings showed that daughters with depressed mothers were 1.92 times more likely to experience depression and 1.64 times more likely to have suicidal ideations. In particular, when father was suicidal, his daughter had a 2.59 times higher risk of suicidal thoughts than father was not depressed and had no suicidal thoughts. Sons' depressive mood was rarely affected by the psychological status of mothers and fathers.

LIMITATION

There are under-report issue of feelings and study design is cross-sectional.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed gender differences in the association between parents' and adolescents' experience of depression. Thus, the daughter's psychological state was found to be strongly associated with the psychological state of both parents.

"It is OK to let them know you are human too": Mentor self-disclosure in formal youth mentoring relationships

This study aims to capture descriptive data on how mentors self-disclose to their adolescent mentees. Self-disclosure is a normative communication process that facilitates trust and closeness in interpersonal relationships. Despite being a relational intervention, little is known about self-disclosure in youth-mentoring relationships. A total of 54 mentors from 2 community-based mentoring programs in Auckland, New Zealand, participated in this mixed-methods study about their experiences of disclosing to mentees via an online questionnaire. In this sample, mentors disclosed about various topics, including hobbies, school and work, health, beliefs, self-esteem, substance use, emotions, sex, and money. Qualitative analysis identified themes regarding how mentors self-disclose, disclosure influencing positive relationship characteristics, the influence of mentoring programs, challenges with mentee interest and culture clashes, and the perceived effect of self-disclosure on mentees and the mentoring relationship. These mentors disclosed broadly and viewed generally self-disclosure in a positive way, but they also experienced challenges and complexities.

Reported child awareness of parental depression

Aims and method To determine rates of parent-reported child awareness of parental depression, examine characteristics of parents, children and families according to child awareness, and explore whether child awareness is associated with child psychopathology. Data were available from 271 families participating in the Early Prediction of Adolescent Depression (EPAD) study, a longitudinal study of offspring of parents with recurrent depression.

Results Seventy-three per cent of participating children were perceived as being aware of their parent’s depression. Older children, and children of parents who experienced more severe depression, were more likely to be aware. Awareness was not associated with child psychopathology.

Clinical implications Considering children in the context of parental depression is important. Child awareness may influence their access to early intervention and prevention programmes. Further research is needed to understand the impact of awareness on the child.