The interpersonal orientation of depression
across age and gender in Singaporean Chinese children
Jessie Bee Kim Koh1 and Weining C.Chang2
1
Cornell University, USA
Email: bk94@cornell.edu
Address: Department of Human Development, Cornell University,
Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401
2
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
The study of the interpersonal nature of depression has been largely neglected in
contemporary psychology until recent years. Koh, Chang, Fung, and Kee (2002), in
developing an Asian Children Depression Scale (ACDS), found a salient interpersonal
dimension in Singaporean Chinese children’s conceptualization of depression: Negative
Social Self (NSS), in addition to three internationally-recognized dimensions: Negative
Affect and Cognitive Dysfunction (NACD), Loss of Interest (LOI), and Psychosomatic
Manifestation (PM). The interpersonal dimension, with a heightened focus on
relationships with authority figures, is rarely found in Western-developed children’s
depression scales. The present study sought to further understand the developmental and
gender characteristics in the interpersonal orientation of depression in Asian children.
Participants were 916 Singaporean Chinese children, aged 6-, 9- and 12-years old (452
girls). The ACDS was employed. Findings from a series of confirmatory factor analyses
revealed that children across the three age groups held similar conceptualization of
depression - feeling sad means feeling that parents and teachers do not care for or like
oneself anymore, and that oneself cannot make them happy (NSS), in addition to having
bad feelings and cannot think well (NACD), losing interest in having fun, learning and
people (LOI), and having bodily discomfort (PM). These conceptualizations were also
found to be held by both girls and boys. Thus, Asian children as young as age 6, both
girls and boys, showed concerns over self-other (authority) relationships, which further
define their sense of emotional well-being. Findings are discussed with respects to the
self-concept in Asian children.