BROWN ET AL. (1986)
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THE ISLINGTON STUDY
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Islington is an area in North London with a lot of poverty and low income families.
It's the home of Arsenal FC and Jeremy Corbyn (Labour Party leader) is the MP for North Islington. |
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Procedure
This is a prospective longitudinal study, because it tracks the women's mental health and personal lives over a year
Phase 1 - initial interview
This is a prospective longitudinal study, because it tracks the women's mental health and personal lives over a year
Phase 1 - initial interview
A semi-structured interview assessed:
- mental health (symptoms of depression)
- self-esteem
- social support (ties with husband/partner, friends and relatives)
Notice the mixture of closed questions ("yes/no") and open follow-on questions ("Probe for details") - a semi-structured approach
50 women reported symptoms of depression and were removed from the study.
Why remove them? The researchers wanted to focus on the ONSET of depression and it would have ruined the validity if some of the women were ALREADY depressed.
Phase 2 - one year later
89% of the original sample consented to a follow-up interview a year later. This re-assessed the same variables as Phase 1.
89% of the original sample consented to a follow-up interview a year later. This re-assessed the same variables as Phase 1.
Brown & Harris' Life Events & Difficulties Schedule (LEDS) was also used to identify stressful life events that had happened during the year. This part was a questionnaire.
The researchers followed up the LEDS with interviews focusing on the crisis support the women had received from their husband or partner during the stressful life events.
21 women were used in a reliability study. 11 were interviewed by 2 interviewers (test-retest reliability); 10 were rated by a second person using tapes from the initial interviews (inter-rater reliability).
Results
About half of the women (150) had experienced a major stressful life event during the year.
32 women developed depression during the year.
29 (91%) of the depressed women had experienced a stressful life event (a provoking agent) compared to 23% who did not experience depression. The difference was significant at the p≤0.01 level.
33% of those who developed depression had low self-esteem. Low self-esteem did not make the women more vulnerable to the onset of depression unless there was a stressful life event; but it did make the onset of depression more likely if a stressful life event occurred.
About half of the women (150) had experienced a major stressful life event during the year.
32 women developed depression during the year.
29 (91%) of the depressed women had experienced a stressful life event (a provoking agent) compared to 23% who did not experience depression. The difference was significant at the p≤0.01 level.
33% of those who developed depression had low self-esteem. Low self-esteem did not make the women more vulnerable to the onset of depression unless there was a stressful life event; but it did make the onset of depression more likely if a stressful life event occurred.
Women who suffered a stressful life event and were given good crisis support by a husband or partner - 92% (85 of 92) - were less likely to suffer depression.
A lot of results here with hard-to-remember numbers, but you only need this study as an example of interviews being used, so just learn ONE result.
Conclusions
Low self-esteem and lack of crisis support make it more likely that stressful life events will lead to depression.
However, there is no evidence that either factor leads to depression without there being stressful life events.
Low self-esteem and lack of crisis support make it more likely that stressful life events will lead to depression.
However, there is no evidence that either factor leads to depression without there being stressful life events.
EVALUATING THE ISLINGTON STUDY AO3
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EXEMPLAR ESSAY
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