A Competency‐based Model of Child Depression: A Longitudinal Study of Peer, Parent, Teacher, and Self‐evaluations

Abstract

In a two-wave longitudinal study of third and sixth graders (N = 617), we obtained self-reports of depression and peer, teacher, parent, and self-reports of competence in five domains: academic, social, attractiveness, conduct, and athletic. Competency evaluations by others predicted change in self-perceived competence over time for girls, but not for boys. Depression predicted change in self-perceived competence over time for boys but not for girls. Among girls, the relative importance of parent, teacher, and peer appraisals shifted from third to sixth grade. For both boys and girls, self-perceptions of competence predicted change in depression scores over time. Furthermore, self-perceived competencies mediated the relation between competency appraisals by others and children's self-reported depression. Results are interpreted in light of a competency-based model of child depression.

Adolescent School Failure Predicts Later Depression Among Girls

“…Consistent with our gender-specific findings, Reinherz and colleagues [7] found that poor academic achievement at age 9 was a risk factor for women but not for men. Other research has shown girls to be more sensitive to competency evaluations [32], so it possible that girls may be psychologically more vulnerable to actual failure experiences in the school domain, particularly since they were less common for girls than for boys.…”

“…In the absence of this, we used teacher reports of depressive problems, which are limited by exposure to one particular context (school) as well as teachers' inability to directly observe the more internal phenomenology of depression. Correlations between teacher reports and self-reports of depression range from .20 to .50 [32,38,39]. Fourth, analyses using the WLSMV estimator were based on the standard untested assumption that a continuous latent response variable that is normally conditioned on the exogenous variables underlies the observed dichotomous outcome.…”

Empirical evidence of cognitive vulnerability for depression among children and adolescents: A cognitive science and developmental perspective

“…Table 1 presents prospective studies that explore self-perception and depression. Evidence supporting negative self-perception as a proximal vulnerability to depressive symptoms is found in eight (Cole, Jacquez, & Maschman, 2001;Cole, Martin, & Powers, 1997;Cole, Martin, Powers, & Truglio, 1996;Kistner, Balthazor, Risi, & Burton, 1999;Measelle et al, 1998;Ohannessian, Lerner, Lerner, & von Eye, 1999; of the fourteen studies. Mixed evidence is found in three studies (Cole, Martin, Peeke, Seroczynski, & Fier, 1999;Hoffman, Cole, Martin, Tram, & Seroczynski, 2000;Kistner, DavidFerdon, Repper, & Joiner, 2006), with an additional three studies (Cole, Martin, Peeke, Seroczynski, & Hoffman, 1998;Lewinsohn et al, 1994;McGrath & Repetti, 2002) presenting evidence that depression predicts self-perception.…”

The balance of intrinsic need satisfaction across contexts as a predictor of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents

“…Conversely, a negative cumulation effect was observed such that children with multiple domains in which their teachers, parents, peers, or themselves judged them as incompetent, had higher levels of depressive symptoms than did children with only one incompetent domain. In a related two-wave longitudinal study, third and sixth graders' perceptions of their own competence was found to be predictive of changes in depressive symptoms over time such that an increase in perceived competence corresponded to subsequent decreases in depressive symptoms, whereas a decrease in competence corresponded to an increase in self-reported depressive symptoms (Cole, Martin, & Powers, 1997). Several longitudinal investigations have attempted to examine the causal relationships between these factors, as well as the developmental periods in which academic and social competence influence internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Burt, Obradovic, Long, & Masten, 2008;Burt & Roisman, 2010;Masten et al, 2005).…”