brown et al - 1986

• aim


  find out (by interview) whether self esteem and support affected the development of schizo

  hypothesis- lack of support and low self esteem are vulnerable facots and increase risk of schizo
• method


  435 working class women who had at least 1 child living at home and husband who has manual job

  1st stage- self esteem, personal ties and psychiatric history were looked at and measures by interviews

  1 year later only 353 consented to study- this phase data was collected about any onset of psychiatric disorder- life event stress and social support measured

  50 participants left

  any onset of a new disorder was tested- inter rater reliablity
• results


  life events- 91% of women who developed depression had experienced a severe event in the 6 months before compared to 23% with no on set but there was severe event

  self esteem- of those who had provoking agent 33% of those who developed depression had negative evaluation of self and 13% didnt

  social support- 92% of women with crisis saw it helpful and women who had close tie at 1st contact but didn't at crisis support- felt let down and 42%
• conclusions


  those with partners had lower chance of onset of depression

  lack of support lowers self esteem
• strengths


  valid data from trained interviews using semi-structured interview- shows reliability and valid

  interviews gave in depth data for the analysis of complex inter-related concepts- inter rater reliability
• weaknesses


  problems with generalisability and was only working classed women- lack of population validity