Title: Early adolescence has been referred to as a stage of transition from childhood into the increasingly
1 Stability of Depressed Mood in Early
Adolescence A Longitudinal Study.Lynae A.
Johnsen, M.A., Susan M. Swearer, Ph.D., Jami E.
Givens, B.A.The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- INSTRUMENT
- The Childrens Depression Inventory (CDI
Kovacs, 1992). This instrument is the most
commonly used self-report measure of depression
for children 7 to 17 years of age. The CDI
consists of 27 items designed to assess the overt
symptoms of childhood depression. The CDI
measures five highly-correlated factors
Negative Mood, Interpersonal Problems,
Ineffectiveness, Anhedonia, and Negative
Self-Esteem. These five factors are combined to
yield one higher-order factor of childhood
depression. Participants are asked to rate the
severity of each item on a three-point scale of 0
to 2 during the two weeks prior to testing.
Total scores of 19 or greater are considered to
indicate potential depression (Stark, 1990). The
CDI has demonstrated acceptable internal
consistency and test-retest as well as convergent
validity (Kovacs, 1992). - PROCEDURES
- Active parental consent and youth assents were
obtained for each participant. - All students with parental consent to
participate in the study were administered the
CDI - during 3 consecutive years during the Spring of
1999 to the Spring of 2003. - These data are from of a five-year longitudinal
study. - RESULTS
- Results show that normal levels of depressed
mood in early adolescence appears to be - stable from Time 1 to Time 3.
- Due to the limited use of advanced statistical
methods used in previous longitudinal - studies examining stability of depressed mood
over time, hierarchal linear modeling
- (HLM) was used to analyze the data.
- HLM is a recently developed statistical model
that examines change of individual - growth trajectories over time (Raudenbush
Bryk, 2002).
- INTRODUCTION
- Early adolescence has been referred to as a stage
of transition from childhood into the
increasingly complex time of adolescence (Heath
Camarena, 2002). - Normative stressors associated with the
transition from elementary to middle school add
to the heightened risk for the development of
depressed mood during adolescence (Clarizio,
1994). - Problems in meeting basic developmental
challenges during adolescence have been
empirically linked to chronically depressed mood
(Petersen, Compas, Brooks-Gunn, 1992). - Less than 3 of preadolescent children experience
major depressive disorder, whereas 6.4 of
adolescents present with clinical levels of
depression (Fleming Offord, 1990). - Stability, or persistence in symptomatology has
been described as one of the three criteria which
permit clinicians to distinguish between a
depressive mood state and an isolated depressive
episode (Rutter, 1988). - Research suggests that incidence of depressed
mood increases across adolescence, with many
adolescents reporting symptoms of depression at
some point during that period of time (Fleming
Offord, 1990). - Researchers have found that formerly depressed
adolescents who developed psychiatric problems
during young adulthood were characterized during
adolescence by more severe depressive episodes
(e.g., longer episode duration, multiple
episodes, greater number of symptoms Lewinsohn,
Rohde, Seeley, Klein, Gotlib, 2000). - Lewinsohn, Rohde, Klein, Seeley (1999) found
that major depressive disorder (MDD) in young
adulthood was significantly more common in an
adolescent MDD group than nonaffective and no
disorder groups. - It is widely recognized that increased knowledge
of the antecedents and processes underlying
depressed mood in early life may contribute to an
improved understanding of the nature and course
of depression in later life (Lewinsohn et al.,
1997). - Several longitudinal studies have examined
stability of depressed mood across varying units
of time in adolescence and have found relatively
stable trends in depression scores (Devine,
Kempton, Forehand, 1994 Dubois, Felner,
Bartels, Silverman, 1995 Holsen, Kraft,
Vitterso, 2000 Heath Camarena, 2002). - In contrast, other researchers have concluded
that depressive symptoms in adolescents seem to
show limited over-time stability (Garrison et
al., 1990). - Previous research on stability of depressed mood
during adolescence has employed basic statistical
methods, including examining mean level
differences and correlations. - The purpose of this study was to examine the
stability of depressed mood during early
adolescence longitudinally using hierarchical
linear modeling. - PARTICIPANTS
- Covariance Parameters (see Figures 2, 3).
- Intercept There is significant variability at
Time 1, meaning not all participants have the
same initial score of 8.91. - Slope There is significant variability in the
growth trajectory across the three time points. - Covariance Indicates the relationship between
initial CDI scores and final CDI scores. There is
a significant negative correlation between
intercept and slope. - Students with higher CDI scores initially at
Time 1 tend to decrease over time. Students with
lower scores at Time 1 tend to slightly increase
over time.
- Table 1.
- Estimates of Fixed Effects
- __________________________________________________
_______________ - Parameter Estimate
Standard Error Significance - __________________________________________________
_______________ - Intercept 8.912
.510
.000 - Time -.007
.239
.997 - __________________________________________________
_______________ - Table 2.
- Estimates of Covariance Parameters
- __________________________________________________
________________ - Parameter Estimate
Standard Error Significance - __________________________________________________
________________ - Residual 21.146 1.84
.000 - Intercept Time
- Intercept 58.545 8.951
.000 - Covariance -12.471 3.692
.001 - Slope 5.550 1.840
.003
Figure 2.
Negative slope, negative slope/intercept
covariance
1 2 3
Time
Figure 3.
Variability of Random Sample Data
Figure 1.
Expected CDI Scores Across Time
Score of 19 or greater is clinically
significant CDI Total Score Range from 0-54.
Poster presented at the Kansas Conference in
Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, October
22, 2004, Lawrence, KS.