TPC-Journal-V1-Issue2

The Professional Counselor \ Volume 1, Issue 2 137 Table 2 Identified Symptoms of Distress for the Two Depressed Vignettes by Sex Symptoms Percentage total ( N ) Percentage male ( N ) Percentage female ( N ) x 2 Tony Fatigue/loss of energy 16 (44.4%) 8 (38.1%) 8 (53.3%) .36 Insomnia 14 (38.9%) 9 (42.9%) 5 (33.3%) .51 Weight loss/decreased appetite 21 (58.3%) 13 (61.9%) 8 (53.3%) .61 Diminished ability to think 14 (38.9%) 7 (33.3%) 7 (46.7%) .42 Diminished interest in activities 27 (75%) 18 (85.7%) 9 (60%) .08 Emily Diminished interest in activities 7 (19.4%) 5 (23.8%) 2 (13.3%) .67 Fatigue/loss of energy 8 (22.2%) 5 (23.8%) 3 (30%) .78 Depressed mood (sad/tearful) 7 (19.4%) 3 (14.3%) 4 (26.7%) .35 Feelings of worthlessness 26 (72.2%) 16 (76.2%) 10 (66.7%) .53 Suicidal thoughts 33 (91.7%) 10 (90.5%) 14 (93.3%) .76 Note. Significant differences between male and female ( p < .05) on x 2 analysis. Finally, after noting which symptoms were strong indicators of problems, respondents answered an open-ended question about sources of help to aid the person in the vignette. For all five vignettes, participants answered whether they thought the person in the vignette needed help from another person. The options included “no,” “yes,” or “don’t know.” If the respondents endorsed that the person did need help, they were asked to answer a follow-up question indicating who they think should help the person. For the depressed vignettes, 58% of respondents indicated that Tony needed help, and 75% indicated the same for Emily. In regard to the type of helpers, participants’ responses were broken down into nine categories of helpers, including counselor; friends; family; professional; psychologist; psychiatrist; doctor; teacher; and someone who has had the same difficulty. Some coding decisions included how to categorize responses not explicitly in the list. Some of these included counseling, school counselor, and guidance counselor, which were included in the category of counselor. For the friend category, other responses included “peers” and “someone who knows him/her well.” For family, “parents,” “relatives,” “siblings/brother/sister” also were included. Non-specific terms were included in the professional category, including specialist, shrink, therapist, psychotherapist, and family therapist. Other responses included in the psychiatrist category were “doctor for depression/depressed kids” and “doctor who prescribes antidepressants.” Some responses that were not coded included third party, new people, anyone, role model, someone he/she doesn’t know , and everyone . Nearly half of the participants (47%) identified the family as the suggested primary helper for Tony, while over one- third (36%) of participants suggested a counselor. The same percentage (36%) identified the family and a psychiatrist, respectively, for Emily, as the best sources of help (see Tables 3-4 for more complete results).