Young people's views of communicating their depression

Abstract

This study examines young people's views of communicating their depression. The study is based on Finnish young people's accounts collected via the Internet. The data consist of 61 written narratives, messages sent during two online group discussions with 20 participants and online individual interviews with four young people. The data were analysed from the frame analytic perspective with the aim of identifying the frames young people use to explain their decisions about communicating their depression. Three different frames were found. Within the frame of support, communicating meant seeking support but was also seen as burdening. Within the frame of connection, young people characterised communicating either as succeeding or failing in forming a connection. When they explained communicating depression through the frame of handling, communication was seen to enable handling distress but could also mean sinking into distress.

Keywords::

• young people
• depression
• communicating
• experience
• online qualitative research
• Finland

Acknowledgements

This study is a part of a research project ‘Coping with depression in social context’ supported by the Academy of Finland (grant 126951). Many thanks to the people who participated in this study and shared their thoughts and experiences with me. I would also like to thank the staff members of ‘Irc-Galleria’ and ‘Tukinet’ for their help in recruiting participants, my supervisors Prof. Vilma Hänninen and Dr Jukka Valkonen for their valuable comments and Enago (www.enago.com) for the English language review.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mervi Issakainen

Mervi Issakainen is a doctoral student and project researcher at the University of Eastern Finland. Her doctoral research is on young people's experiences of depression.