14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new scientific investigation, it would appear that highschool teenagers who are depressed are not completely shunned by others, and that they form friendships with colleagues experiencing similar moods.
In other words, depressive kids are very likely to be attracted by, and form friendships with, other depressive teens, which mean that they do not spend all of their time alone.
Until now, scientists believed that children experiencing the symptoms of depression could have their condition made worst by being alone. The finding shows their fears are unfounded.
The new study was produced by scientists at the Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, who were led by expert David Schaefer. Details of the research were presented on August 15.
“These students aren’t avoided by others at school because they’re depressed, and their depression is not a product of having poor-quality friendships,” the expert argues in the new paper.
The selectivity in choosing friends that depressed children display is caused by social withdrawal, and not the other way around, Schaefer says at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).
The investigation also showed that teens who were generally in better moods than their depressed peers tended to form friendships with colleagues with equally “sunny” dispositions, a finding that is in tune with what experts expected to find.
The ASU science was therefore surprised to find that, counter-intuitively, depression can trigger the formation of friendships, with the relationships showing the same characteristics as those bound between children in better moods.
The new findings also shed some doubts on past sociological theories, which argued that having friends protects against the onset of depression symptoms.
The researchers demonstrated that this is not necessarily true, and additionally showed that the exact opposite is true.
Schaefer collaborated closely with ASU colleague Olga Kornienko in analyzing the data that was used for this research.
The work covered a sample of 3,702 teens at 16 public and private schools across the country, Science News reports.