The compounded effect of the dual pandemic on ethnic-racial minority adolescents' mental health and psychosocial well-being.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. youth faced various stressors that affected their schooling experiences, social relationships, family dynamics, and communities.

Avoidance Bias to Angry Faces Predicts the Development of Depressive Symptoms among Adolescent Girls.

Interpersonal-motivational models posit that heightened avoidance of aversive social stimuli and diminished approach of appetitive social stimuli increases social withdrawal and reduces positive social interactions, thereby increasing risk for future social anxiety and depression. The current study examined if approach-avoidance biases toward angry and happy faces, measured during the Approach Avoidance Task (AAT), would be associated with the development of adolescent depressive and social anxiety symptoms. At baseline, participants included 129 never-depressed adolescent girls (ages 11-13), two-thirds of whom were at high-risk for internalizing problems due to shy/fearful temperament.

Childhood maltreatment reports in adult seasonal affective disorder: Associations with sleep disturbances, maladaptive cognitions, and brooding.

Background: Although childhood maltreatment has been studied in multiple psychopathologies, its role in Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is unknown. The current study examined possible mediators of the relationship between retrospectively-reported childhood maltreatment and adult SAD symptom severity during a major depressive episode in winter.

Methods: Participants (N = 113), ages 18 to 65, completed measures of childhood maltreatment, SAD severity, sleep disturbances, ruminative brooding, and maladaptive cognitions.