Childhood and adolescent depression has emerged as a public health concern because of its impairment of functioning, particularly in the domains of decision making and self-efficacy. The present investigation examines the association between depressive symptoms and decision coping patterns among a nonreferred, nonclinical community sample of 276 low-income African American adolescents. The students ranged in age from 12 to 17 years. The Children's Depression Inventory was used to assess participants'depressive symptomatology. The Flinders Adolescent Decision Making Questionnaire was used for assessing participants' decision coping patterns. The instrument was group administered in classroom settings by the research staff. Findings indicated a significant association between depressive symptomatology and the use of maladaptive decision coping patterns. Perhaps increasing competence in decision making may have beneficial effects on overall mood and depressive symptoms among children and adolescents.
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