https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/auckland-tech/oai:openrepository.aut.ac.nz:10292/19288
type: CreativeWork
name: Using the Network Approach to Psychopathology to Better Understand the Complex Relationships between Depressive Symptoms with Risk Factors, Suicidality, and Inflammation amongst Pacific Young People in New Zealand
description: Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is closely associated with suicidality (suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts), many serious physical health conditions, and actual suicide. Depression, and suicide are problems in New Zealand (NZ), which has higher depression prevalence and teen suicide rates than many similar high-income countries. Within NZ, the burden of depression and suicidality is disproportionate, affecting some groups more than others. Pacific adolescents and Pacific young adults in NZ show significantly higher rates of depressive symptoms, psychological distress and suicidality compared to NZ European adolescents. Despite these elevated risks little research has been conducted into depression and suicidality amongst this population. This thesis applied the network approach to psychopathology to investigate various aspects of depressive symptomatology amongst NZ Pacific adolescents and young adults, specifically associations between individual depression symptoms with risk factors, suicidality and inflammation. According to the network perspective, the symptoms and their interactions comprise the disorder rather than being manifestations of a common cause. Using this approach, depression is measured in terms of individual symptoms (although it may also be measured complementarily in other ways) and the associations amongst the individual depression symptoms and between the symptoms and other relevant non-symptom factors are visualized in a highly intuitive network graph. The overall aim of this thesis was to use the network approach, to gain a deeper insight into these complex and multi-faceted relationships. To fulfil this objective, three original studies and a literature review were conducted. The first part of this thesis focused primarily on associations between psychosocial risk factors with depression and suicidality, with two original studies. One study investigated associations between depression symptoms with a wide range …
abstract: Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is closely associated with suicidality (suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts), many serious physical health conditions, and actual suicide. Depression, and suicide are problems in New Zealand (NZ), which has higher depression prevalence and teen suicide rates than many similar high-income countries. Within NZ, the burden of depression and suicidality is disproportionate, affecting some groups more than others. Pacific adolescents and Pacific young adults in NZ show significantly higher rates of depressive symptoms, psychological distress and suicidality compared to NZ European adolescents. Despite these elevated risks little research has been conducted into depression and suicidality amongst this population. This thesis applied the network approach to psychopathology to investigate various aspects of depressive symptomatology amongst NZ Pacific adolescents and young adults, specifically associations between individual depression symptoms with risk factors, suicidality and inflammation. According to the network perspective, the symptoms and their interactions comprise the disorder rather than being manifestations of a common cause. Using this approach, depression is measured in terms of individual symptoms (although it may also be measured complementarily in other ways) and the associations amongst the individual depression symptoms and between the symptoms and other relevant non-symptom factors are visualized in a highly intuitive network graph. The overall aim of this thesis was to use the network approach, to gain a deeper insight into these complex and multi-faceted relationships. To fulfil this objective, three original studies and a literature review were conducted. The first part of this thesis focused primarily on associations between psychosocial risk factors with depression and suicidality, with two original studies. One study investigated associations between depression symptoms with a wide range …
author: Gossage, Lisa
date published: 2025
date modified: 2026-07-27T18:46:23Z
provider: AUT University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: AUT University