Trajectories of depressive symptoms among high risk African-American adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the trajectories of depressive symptoms among African-American youth and the psychosocial factors associated with these trajectories.


METHODS
The sample included 579 African-American adolescents who were at risk of dropping out of school, interviewed annually starting from ninth grade for 4 years. The measures included depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, self-esteem, stress, and active coping; all self-reported. We used cluster analysis to develop longitudinal trajectories of depression in our sample.


RESULTS
Four different trajectories of depressive symptoms were found that represented the changes in depressive symptoms among the participants. These trajectories are: consistently high (15.9%), consistently low (21.1%), decreasing (41.8%), and increasing (21.2%) depressive symptoms. The results from the comparisons of the trajectories indicated that adolescents who presented consistently high levels of depressive symptoms were more likely to be female, reported more anxiety symptoms, lower self-esteem, higher stress, and lower grade point average (GPA) compared with adolescent members of the other trajectories.


CONCLUSIONS
Depressive symptoms may be manifested in different ways according to the patterns of change. Different correlates are associated with these trajectories of depressive symptoms and provide insights about the antecedents and consequences of the patterns of change in depressive symptoms.
Repetto
Paula B
PB
School of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA. prepetto@umich.edu
Caldwell
Cleopatra H
CH
Zimmerman
Marc A
MA
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015146:Midwestern United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires