Antecedents of transition patterns of depressive symptom trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood

Abstract

This study examined (a) transition patterns from adolescent-specific depressive symptom trajectory classes to young adult-specific trajectory classes (N = 537; 15-26 years) and (b) identified risk factors associated with these transition patterns. The latent classes and transition analyses identified three transitional patterns of depressive symptom trajectories, including a deteriorating pattern (8.2%), a recovering pattern (22.5%), and a consistently low pattern (69.3%). Additionally, the results showed that contextual risk factors (i.e., negative economic events, negative romantic relationships, and low college enrolment rates) in the transition period to young adulthood were more positively associated with deteriorated or recovered transition patterns of depressive symptom trajectories than with the consistently low transition patterns even after taking into account the effects of adolescent risk factors. The identification of dynamic transition patterns in depressive symptom trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood and risk factors provide useful tools for preventive and intervention efforts. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Heterogeneous trajectories of depressive symptoms across adolescence and young adulthood have been reported. Psychosocial characteristics differentiate trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood. What does this study add? Dynamic transition patterns of depressive symptom trajectories are found between adolescence and young adulthood. Life experiences in the transition period are uniquely associated with the transition patterns of depressive symptom trajectories even after adjusting the effects of adolescent characteristics.

Aging Together in Enduring Couple Relationships: A Life Course Systems Perspective

“…Another extension of GMM that can be helpful for investigating complex couple aging processes is latent transition growth mixture modeling (LT‐GMM). LT‐GMM allows researchers to investigate transition patterns (or discontinuous trajectories) over time (Lee, Wickrama, Kwon, Lorenz, & Oshri, ). One example is conjoint class trajectories between husbands' and wives' PF (shown in Figure ).…”

Childhood Trauma and Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms Across Adolescence

“…These results suggest that the effects of childhood trauma may have more damaging effects during the formative years of adolescence, as opposed to an increased risk of depression at a later age. There is also evidence to suggest that more stressful life events in childhood are associated with higher trajectories of depressive symptoms in other longitudinal studies (Fernandez Castelao & Kroner-Herwig, 2013;Lee, Wickrama, Kwon, Lorenz, & Oshri, 2017;Stoolmiller, Kim, & Capaldi, 2005;Weeks et al, 2014). However, in many of these studies, depressive symptoms are not measured across the entire period of adolescence and therefore the true longitudinal nature of childhood trauma on trajectories of depressive symptoms is not known.…”

Depressive symptoms and diabetes management from late adolescence to emerging adulthood.

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