Developmental pathways linking childhood and adolescent internalizing, externalizing, academic competence, and adolescent depression.
This study examined longitudinal pathways through three domains of adaptation from ages 4-5 to 14-15 (internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and academic competence) towards depressive symptoms at age 16-17. Participants were 6425 Canadian children followed bi-annually as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth. Within-domain (i.e., stability) effects were moderate in strength. We found longitudinal cross-domain effects across one time point (i.e., one-lag cascades) between internalizing and externalizing in early childhood (positive associations), and between academic competence and externalizing in later childhood and adolescence (negative associations). We also found cascade effects over multiple time points (i.e., multi-lag cascades); lower academic competence at age 4-5 and greater internalizing at age 6-7 predicted greater age 12-13 externalizing, and greater age 6-7 externalizing predicted greater age 16-17 depression. Important pathways towards adolescent depression include a stability path through childhood and adolescent internalizing, as well as a number of potential paths involving all domains of adaptation, highlighting the multifactorial nature of adolescent depression.
Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
Murray
M
Weeks
Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University College London, London, UK.
George B
GB
Ploubidis
Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada; Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada; Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
John
J
Cairney
School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
T Cameron
TC
Wild
Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
Kiyuri
K
Naicker
Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. Electronic address: icolman@uottawa.ca.
Ian
I
Colman
D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011581:Psychological Tests; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D002666:Psychology, Child
Academic competence; Cascades; Depression; Externalizing; Internalizing; Longitudinal