The Form and Function of Self-Disclosure in Depressed Adolescents

TL;DRAbstract

Adolescent depression is a major public health concern, prevalence estimates of which indicate that from 9.5% (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, & Angold, 2003) to 11.7% (Merikangas et al., 2010) of adolescents may experience at some point; these depressive episodes have been linked to numerous physiological, psychological, educational and general functioning deficits. Although children and adolescents are known to be the subject of harsh stigmatizing beliefs (Perry, Pescosolido, Martin, McLeod, & Jensen, 2007), little research has been conducted on adolescents’ perceptions of mental health focused stigma experiences and coping mechanisms. Stigma experiences such as those experienced by persons with Mental Health (MH) concerns can lead many to manage the disclosure of their potentially stigmatizing feature, often choosing to conceal those features which can be concealed (Wahl, 1999b). The Visibility Management (VM) concept seeks to explain some of the underlying processes in how ind

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