Adolescent depression: effects of mutuality in the mother-adolescent dyad and locus of control.

A group of 213 adolescents and their mothers participated in a study of the combined relationship between gender, locus of control, and perceived mutuality in the mother/adolescent dyad and self-rated adolescent depression. High mutuality and internal locus of control were significantly related to low levels of depression for both female and male adolescents. The study findings are considered in the context of current theoretical work on female relational psychology.