Childhood depression and mass print magazines in the USA and Canada: 1983-2008

Childhood depression is a diagnosis made with increasing frequency. Mass media, including magazines, are a significant source of knowledge about health and illness available in mass society, including childhood depression. This study is a frame analysis of the portrayal of childhood depression in the textual content of magazines available in English in North America in the years 1983-2008. Childhood depression is portrayed as a real, biologically rooted, unitary and somewhat common condition that is undertreated and can be dangerous. The job of the parent in the face of the symptoms of depression such as sadness and irritability in a child is limited to taking the child to an expert (usually a doctor) for treatment. This portrayal reflects three contemporary theories (medicalization, intensive mothering and the diseasing of childhood) and has probable practical consequences for the actions of parents and for the ways in which they approach clinicians regarding the health of their children. It also has consequences for the well-being of children.