Abstract
Background: Research suggests that biological and psychological attributions for depression are related to professional help-seeking, but the association of these attributions with informal support seeking in social relationships is unknown. As social support is linked with recovery from depression and a lower likelihood of experiencing future episodes of depression, it is important to understand factors that influence an individual's decision to seek social support. Aims: The present study examined depressed individuals own attributions for their depressive symptoms (i.e. personal attributions), perceptions of a friend's attributions for these symptoms (i.e. perceived attributions), and the depressed individuals willingness to seek social support from that friend. Method: Eighty-six individuals experiencing at least mild depressive symptoms completed self-report measures of personal attributions, perceived attributions, and a social support seeking intentions scale. Results: Participants own attributions for depressive symptoms were unrelated to their willingness to seek social support. In contrast, perceived biological attributions were related to greater help-seeking intentions, whereas perceived psychological attributions were associated with lower support seeking intentions. Conclusions: These results suggest that decisions to seek social support are more influenced by perceptions of others beliefs about depression than one's own beliefs.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 605-617 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy |
Volume | 40 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- causal attributions
- Depression
- relationships
- social support
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology