“More Worries Kept on Coming and Coming”: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of How Early Adolescent Girls Experience Emotional Symptoms
Abstract Objectives: We sought to explore the subjective ways that at-risk early adolescent girls experience and make sense of emotional symptoms, characterised by depressive and anxious feelings. Research indicates higher rates of emotional symptoms and disorders among girls and women, and recent evidence indicates increasing prevalence among adolescent girls, warranting exploration of subjective experiences.Methods: Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to explore lived experience and sense-making. This approach aims to capture rich, in-depth insight into the way in which a small number of early adolescent girls subjectively understand and experience these types of symptoms. In-depth interviews were conducted with three early adolescent girls who described experiencing emotional symptoms and exposure to multiple sources of possible stress.Findings: Five themes were developed to capture participants’ experiences of symptoms: (a) the nature of symptoms, including differing conceptualisations of symptoms as objectified cognitive entities or an affective state; (b) symptoms are a collective mass that can grow, which can sometimes mean they go beyond one’s control; (c) symptoms as central and dominant in emotions; (d) passive experience of symptoms, whereby participants often considered themselves passive within occurrence and resolution of their symptoms; and (e) grappling with symptoms in relation to the self, which captures the separation participants created these feelings and their core identities. Conclusions: Early adolescent girls can experience symptoms as intense and at times uncontrollable, and may find it difficult to align these difficulties with their sense of self. It may be therapeutically valuable to support this group in understanding and making sense of these thoughts and feelings in order to facilitate a greater sense of control.