Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Feeling Not Wanted/Loved And Depression: Does Gender Matter?, Manik Ahuja, Joy Okoro, Esther Frimpong, Riddhi P. Doshi, Rajvi J. Wani

ETSU Faculty Works

Depression affects over 17 million American adults yearly and has been identified as the leading cause of disability in people between the ages of 15 and 44 years. There is evidence that feeling neglect or a lack of parental attachment during childhood is associated with depression. One construct that has been overlooked is love from a parent. The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between individuals who felt not wanted/loved during adolescence and lifetime depression and to examine this association by gender. We examined 5114 participants aged 24–32 years at Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study …