A Model for Explaining Depression Based on the Direct Role of Social Support through the Mediation of Dysfunctional Attitude in Children

Depression (major depressive disorder) is a frequent and severe psychiatric illness that negatively affects how one feels, the way one thinks, and how one acts, and it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at school and home. Researchers have identified the factors associated with depression in childhood. Social support is a multidimensional concept defined in various ways, for example, it can be defined as a resource provided by others, as a means to deal with stress, or as an exchange of resources. On the other hand, some scholars have defined social support as the amount of love, companionship, care, respect, attention, and assistance received by the individual or other groups such as family members, friends, and others. Some social support is a social reality, and others see it as a result of the perception and perception of the individual. Sarason considers that social support is a multi–dimensional concept that embraces both real and imaginary dimensions. In sum, perhaps social support is the feeling that the person is at the center of attention of others, that others value him, and that he belongs to a social network. Attitude is a combination of beliefs and excitements that prepare a person in advance to look at others, objects, and groups positively or negatively. Attitudes summarize the evaluation of objects and, as a result, predict or guide future actions or behaviors. Attitude can be defined in terms of learning theories and cognitive approaches. In each of these theories, the concept of attitude is defined differently and emphasizes each of the different aspects of attitude. The purpose of this study was to explain depression based on the direct role of social support and mediating the role of an ineffective attitude in children.

The research method was descriptive and correlational methods. The statistical population of this study was all children of Tehran's welfare centers in 1120 children aged 7 to 12 years in 79 centers in 2018 that 545 children were selected by available sampling method. The research instruments included the Kovacs children's depression inventory (1992), dysfunctional attitude of children questionnaire of D’Alessandro and Burton (2006), Procidano and Heller's social support questionnaire (1983). Data were analyzed using SPSS–22 and AMOS 23 software. Path analysis and Pearson correlation were applied in order to analyze the data.

Pearson's correlation showed that ineffective attitude of individual with social support was inverse and significant (p<0.001, r=–0.89) and had a direct and significant relationship with depression (p<0.001, r=0.66). In addition, there was a significant negative relationship between social inefficient attitude and social support (p<0.001, r=–0.86), and there was a direct and significant relationship with depression (p<0.001, r=0.61). The total score of inefficient attitude with social support was inverse and significant (p<0.001, r=–0.88) and had a direct and significant relationship with depression (p<0.001, r=0.64). Social support had inverse and significant relationship with depression (p<0.001, r=–0.43). In addition, at the level of structural equation results, social support can predict depression in children with mediating role of inefficient attitude (p<0.001, r=–0.37).

In general, the results of this study revealed that social support with the mediator role of dysfunctional attitude could be a desirable model for predicting depression in children. As a result, the results of this study can be used to identify the type of social support and dysfunctional attitude in psychological counseling in depressed children.