Depression from childhood into late adolescence: Influence of gender, development, genetic susceptibility, and peer stress.

Depression is a debilitating mental illness with clear developmental patterns from childhood through late adolescence. Here, we present data from the Gene Environment Mood (GEM) study, which used an accelerated longitudinal cohort design with youth (N = 665) starting in 3rd, 6th, and 9th grades, and a caretaker, who were recruited from the general community, and were then assessed repeatedly through semistructured diagnostic interviews every 6 months over 3 years (7 waves of data) to establish and then predict trajectories of depression from age 8 to 18. First, we demonstrated that overall prevalence rates of depression over time, by age, gender, and pubertal status, in the GEM study closely match those trajectories previously obtained in past developmental epidemiological research.

The Development of Self-Criticism and Dependency in Early Adolescence and Their Role in the Development of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms.

According to Blatt and others (e.g., A.

Emotional Awareness: A Transdiagnostic Predictor of Depression and Anxiety for Children and Adolescents.

Research increasingly suggests that low emotional awareness may be associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety among children and adolescents. However, because most studies have been cross-sectional, it has remained unclear whether low emotional awareness predicts subsequent internalizing symptoms. The current study used longitudinal data to examine the role of emotional awareness as a transdiagnostic predictor of subsequent symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Self-Structures, Negative Events, and Adolescent Depression: Clarifying the Role of Self-Complexity in a Prospective, Multiwave Study.

The purpose of this multiwave longitudinal study was to examine the structure of self-complexity, and its relation to depressive symptoms, in 276 adolescents ( = 12.55; = 1.04).

Stress sensitivity interacts with depression history to predict depressive symptoms among youth: prospective changes following first depression onset.

Predictors of depressive symptoms may differ before and after the first onset of major depression due to stress sensitization. Dependent stressors, or those to which characteristics of individuals contribute, have been shown to predict depressive symptoms in youth. The current study sought to clarify how stressors' roles may differ before and after the first depressive episode.

Why are anxiety and depressive symptoms comorbid in youth? A multi-wave, longitudinal examination of competing etiological models.

Background: The present study sought to clarify the development of comorbid emotional distress by comparing different explanations for how youth develop anxiety and depressive symptoms. Specifically, we introduced the diathesis-anxiety approach (whether cognitive vulnerabilities interact with anxiety symptoms), and compared it to a causal model (anxiety symptoms predicting depressive symptoms), and a correlated liabilities model (whether cognitive vulnerabilities interacted with stressors to predict both anxiety and depressive symptoms) to examine which model best explained the relation between depressive and anxiety symptoms in youth.

Methods: 678 3rd (n=208), 6th (n=245), and 9th (n=225) grade girls (n=380) and boys (n=298) completed self-report measures at baseline assessing cognitive vulnerabilities (rumination and self-criticism), stressors, depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Depressogenic thinking and shame proneness in the development of internalizing problems.

This study examined depressogenic thinking and shame proneness as factors in the development of internalizing problems in a longitudinal sample of 174 children (99 boys, 75 girls). At 7.6-9.

PERSONALITY PREDISPOSITIONS IN CHINESE ADOLESCENTS: THE RELATION BETWEEN SELF-CRITICISM, DEPENDENCY, AND PROSPECTIVE INTERNALIZING SYMPTOMS.

The present study examined the prospective relation between two personality predispositions, self-criticism and dependency, and internalizing symptoms. Specifically, it was examined whether self-criticism and dependency predicted symptoms of depression and social anxiety, and if a moderation (e.g.

Negative attachment cognitions and emotional distress in mainland Chinese adolescents: a prospective multiwave test of vulnerability-stress and stress generation models.

The present study examined the relation between attachment cognitions, stressors, and emotional distress in a sample of Chinese adolescents. Specifically, it was examined whether negative attachment cognitions predicted depression and anxiety symptoms, and if a vulnerability-stress or stress generation model best explained the relation between negative attachment cognitions and internalizing symptoms. Participants included 558 adolescents (310 females and 248 males) from an urban school in Changsha and 592 adolescents (287 female, 305 male) from a rural school in Liuyang, both in Hunan province located in mainland China.

Rumination and Excessive Reassurance Seeking: Investigation of the Vulnerability Model and Specificity to Depression.

Recent research investigating cognitive and interpersonal models of depression have conceptualized rumination and excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) as vulnerabilities for the etiology of depression. However, research testing the vulnerability hypothesis for these constructs among youth is lacking. Additionally, the specificity of rumination and excessive reassurance seeking to depression is unclear.

Personality predispositions to depression in children of affectively-ill parents: the buffering role of self-esteem.

A major theory of personality predispositions to depression posits that individuals who possess high levels of self-criticism and/or dependency are vulnerable to developing depression following negative life events. The goal of the current study was to test this theory of personality predispositions and the self-esteem buffering hypothesis in a sample of youth using an idiographic approach, a high-risk sample, and a multiwave longitudinal design. One hundred forty children aged 6 to 14 completed measures of dependency, self-criticism, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms.

Chronic family stress interacts with 5-HTTLPR to predict prospective depressive symptoms among youth.

Background: Previous research, predominantly with adults, has shown that the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) interacts with stress (G × E) to predict depressive symptoms; however, few G × E studies have been conducted with youth using rigorous methods, particularly a prospective design and contextual interview to assess stress. This study examined the interaction between 5-HTTLPR and stress, both chronic and episodic, to predict longitudinal change in depressive symptoms among children and adolescents.

Methods: A general community sample of youth (N = 200; 57% girls; mean age: 12.

Assessing measurement invariance of the children's depression inventory in Chinese and Italian primary school student samples.

This study tested the measurement invariance of Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and compared its factorial variance/covariance and latent means among Chinese and Italian children. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis of the original five factors identified by Kovacs revealed that full measurement invariance did not hold. Further analysis showed that 4 of 21 factor loadings, 14 of 26 intercepts, and 12 of 26 item errors were noninvariant.

Cognitive vulnerability to depressive symptoms in adolescents in urban and rural Hunan, China: a multiwave longitudinal study.

The current multiwave longitudinal study examined the applicability of two cognitive vulnerability-stress models of depression-Beck's (1967, 1983) cognitive theory and the hopelessness theory (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989)-in two independent samples of adolescents from Hunan Province, China (one rural and one urban). During an initial assessment, participants completed measures assessing dysfunctional attitudes (Beck, 1967, 1983), negative cognitive style (Abramson et al., 1989), neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1992), depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms.

Multi-wave prospective examination of the stress-reactivity extension of response styles theory of depression in high-risk children and early adolescents.

The current study tested the stress-reactivity extension of response styles theory of depression (Nolen-Hoeksema Journal of Abnormal Psychology 100:569-582, 1991) in a sample of high-risk children and early adolescents from a vulnerability-stress perspective using a multi-wave longitudinal design. In addition, we examined whether obtained results varied as a function of either age or sex. During an initial assessment, 56 high-risk children (offspring of depressed parents; ages 7-14) completed measures assessing rumination and depressive symptoms.

The effects of rumination on the timing of maternal and child negative affect.

The current study examined whether rumination serves as a moderator of the temporal association between maternal and child negative affect. Participants included 88 mothers with a history of major depressive episodes and their 123 children. During an initial assessment, mothers and their children completed measures assessing negative affect and children completed a measure assessing the tendency to ruminate in response to such symptoms.

Interaction of 5-HTTLPR and idiographic stressors predicts prospective depressive symptoms specifically among youth in a multiwave design.

5-HTTLPR, episodic stressors, depressive and anxious symptoms were assessed prospectively (child and parent report) every 3 months over 1 year (5 waves of data) among community youth ages 9 to 15 (n = 220). Lagged hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed 5-HTTLPR interacted with idiographic stressors (increases relative to the child's own average level over time), but not nomothetic stressors (higher stress exposure relative to the sample), to predict prospective elevations in depressive, but not anxious, symptoms. Youth with copies of the S or L(G) alleles of 5-HTTLPR, who experienced more stressors relative to their typical level, exhibited prospective increases in depressive symptoms over time.

Association between 5-HTTLPR and Borderline Personality Disorder Traits among Youth.

This study provides the first genetic association examination of borderline personality disorder (BPD) traits in children and adolescents (ages 9-15) using two independent samples of youth recruited from the general community. We tested the a priori hypothesis that the serotonin transporter promoter gene (5-HTTLPR) would relate specifically to BPD traits in youth. This association was hypothesized based on prior genetic association research with BPD adults and theory positing that emotion dysregulation may be a core risk process contributing to BPD.

Rumination as a vulnerability factor to depression during the transition from early to middle adolescence: a multiwave longitudinal study.

The current study examined vulnerability to depression during the transition from early to middle adolescence from the perspective of the response styles theory. During an initial assessment, 382 adolescents (ages 11-15 years) completed self-report measures assessing rumination and depressive symptoms as well as a semistructured clinical interview assessing current and past major depressive episodes. Every 3 months for the subsequent 2 years, adolescents completed self-report measures assessing depressive symptoms and negative events.

Co-rumination predicts the onset of depressive disorders during adolescence.

The tendency to co-ruminate, or frequently discuss and rehash problems with peers, may serve as one mechanism in the dramatic rise in depression observed during adolescence, particularly among adolescent girls. In the current study, our goal was (a) to test the hypothesis that adolescents' levels of co-rumination would predict the onset of clinically significant depressive episodes over a 2-year follow-up and (b) to determine whether levels of co-rumination would mediate gender differences in risk for depression onset. Both hypotheses were supported.

A prospective study of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms in patients with essential hypertension.

The objective of the current study was to examine the relationships between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms in essential hypertension patients. Both cross-sectional and prospective relationships were studied in a sample of 650 essential hypertension patients. The cognitive emotion regulation strategies accounted for considerable amounts of variance in depressive symptoms.

Rumination as a vulnerability factor to depression in adolescents in mainland China: lifetime history of clinically significant depressive episodes.

The current study tested the vulnerability and sex differences hypotheses of the response styles theory of depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991). Participants included 494 tenth-grade students (M = 15.25 years, SD = 0.