The dynamics of life stressors and depressive symptoms in early adolescence: a test of six theoretical models.
Structural equation modeling was used to compare 6 competing theoretically based psychosocial models of the longitudinal association between life stressors and depressive symptoms in a sample of early adolescents (N= 907; 40% Hispanic, 32% Black, and 19% White; mean age at Time 1 = 11.4 years). Only two models fit the data, both of which included paths modeling the effect of depressive symptoms on stressors recall: The mood-congruent cognitive bias model included only depressive symptoms to life stressors paths (DS-->S), whereas the fully transactional model included paths representing both the DS-->S and stressors to depressive symptoms (S-->DS) effects. Social causation models and the stress generation model did not fit the data. Findings demonstrate the importance of accounting for mood-congruent cognitive bias in stressors-depressive symptoms investigations.
Clements
Margaret
M
Department of Applied Psychology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, 246 Greene Street, New York, NY 10003, USA. peggy.clements@nyu.edu
Aber
J Lawrence
JL
Seidman
Edward
E
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests