Browsing by Subject "Adolescent depression"

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Exploring the etiology of adolescent depression : a longitudinal approach to identifying effects of maternal and paternal depression
(2013-12) Christopher, Caroline Heaton; Hazen, Nancy Lynn
Although there is evidence that children of depressed parents are far more likely to suffer from depression than other children (Hammen & Brennan, 2003), the majority of research examining links between parents’ depression and adolescent depression has focused on maternal depression, minimizing or ignoring the potential influence of paternal depression. Thus, the goals of the proposed study were 1) to examine both maternal and paternal depressive symptoms in relation to adolescents’ depressive symptoms over time, 2) to explore possible gender differences in how teens are affected by maternal versus paternal depressive symptoms, and 3) to investigate the role of parent-teen relationship quality. This study used data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which includes measures of each parents’ depressive symptoms, taken when children were in 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 10th grades, and adolescent depressive symptoms measured at grades 5, 6, and 10. Results of path analyses using a cross-lagged panel design revealed that paternal depressive symptoms significantly predicted changes in adolescent depressive symptoms from grade 5 to 6 and 6 to grade 10. Although maternal depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with female adolescents’ depressive symptoms, mothers’ depressive symptoms predicted male adolescents’ depressive symptoms at grade 5. Models revealed a reciprocal influence of female adolescents’ depressive symptoms and paternal depressive symptoms. Furthermore, models of indirect effects suggest that the relationship of maternal depressive symptoms at grade 3 and male teens’ depressive symptoms had an enduring effect on males’ depressive symptoms through grades 6 and 10. This was also found for the association of paternal depressive symptoms and subsequent female teens’ symptoms. Finally, moderation analyses revealed a significant interaction of maternal depressive symptoms and mother-teen relationship quality predicting female teens’ subsequent depressive symptoms such that females who had high-quality relationships with highly depressed mothers were more likely to be depressed themselves, whereas female teens’ depressive symptoms were lowest if they had high quality relationships with mothers who reported low levels of depressive symptoms. The present study highlights the need for systems-based approaches to working with families in which one or more family members experience depressive symptoms.
A longitudinal study of risk factors for adolescent depression : gender differences and pathways of risk
(2005-08) Bearman, Sarah Kate; Stice, Eric
Despite consistent evidence that adolescent girls are at greater risk for developing depression than adolescent boys (Ge, Lorenz, Conger, & Elder, 1994; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987, 1990; Weissman, Leaf, Holzer, Myers, & Tischler, 1984), and that women continue to predominate among depressed adults throughout the lifespan (Kessler, McGonagle, Swartz, Blazer & Nelson, 1993), few studies have examined the etiologic risk factors that predict depression for adolescent girls using a prospective design or examined differential processes of risk in a sample of adolescent girls and boys. Furthermore, although a number of variables have been implicated as risk factors for depressive symptoms or onset of depression among adolescents, some methodological limitations exist. The objective of this research was to examine a set of risk factors suspected to predict depression in adolescents, and to test whether gender moderates these relations. Secondly, this study examined a set of risk factors proposed by the gender additive model of depression (Stice et al., 2000; Stice & Bearman, 2001) that attempts to partially explain the increased prevalence of depressive symptoms in adolescent girls compared to boys. Finally, exploratory classification tree analyses tested for interactions between risk factors that might signal differential pathways to depression. This research provides insight into the etiology of adolescent depression as well as the disparate rate of depression among adolescent girls versus boys, and also provides direction for identifying high-risk individuals and developing effective prevention programs.
Taking a symptom level approach to adolescent depression
(2020-08-17) Mullarkey, Michael C.; Carlson, Caryn L.; Beevers, Christopher; Shumake, Jason; Marchetti, Igor; Yeager, David
Many individuals experience their first major depressive episode in adolescence (Merikangas et al., 2010), and even sub-clinical depressive symptoms in adolescents predict maladaptive outcomes (Bertha & Balázs, 2013). Still, sum scoring all of the items on a depression scale to determine severity, can be problematic psychometrically (Fried, van Borkulo, et al., 2016) and conceptually (Borsboom, 2008). Therefore, examining how individual depression symptoms relate to depression relevant outcomes appears to be an appropriate approach (Fried & Nesse, 2015b). However, no systematic evaluation of how individual depression symptoms relate to important outcomes has occurred in an adolescent sample. In Studies 1 and 2, I systematically evaluated which depressive symptoms may be more important during adolescence using network analysis (Borsboom & Cramer, 2013), a method that quantifies which symptoms are more central to a disorder (Valente, 2012). I found that self-hatred, sadness, loneliness, and pessimism were the most central symptoms in a large (N = 1,409), diverse (63.38% Non-Caucasian) sample of adolescents, and all assessed central symptoms replicated in a separate sample (N = 1,059) using a different measure of depression. Further, the more central a depression symptom was in the network the more variance it shared with life satisfaction (r = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.27, 0.76). In Study 3, I explicitly evaluated the replicability of strength centrality in cross-sectional adolescent depression networks using KL divergence and a pseudo R2 metric. Compared to a null model (R2 = 0) and a perfect replication (R2 = 1), cross-sectional network strength centrality replicated well (R2 = 0.80) across two samples (Ns = 1,159, 402) of non-selected adolescents. Using a novel application of bootstrapping, I found cross-sectional network strength centrality of adolescent depression in one sample predicts change over time centrality of adolescent depression in another sample (r = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.45, 0.92). My findings indicate more central adolescent depression symptoms as determined by network analysis, self-hatred, sadness, and loneliness, may be more important for depression related outcomes than more peripheral symptoms. Further investigating these central symptoms may more effectively advance our theoretical and clinical understanding of adolescent depression relative to investigating other symptoms.