Stressors and Child and Adolescent Psychopathology: Measurement Issues and Prospective Effects

Abstract

This article reviews existing research on the association between stressors and symptoms of psychopathology in children and adolescents with a focus on measurement issues and prospective effects. The first half of the article focuses on the measurement of stressors, emphasizing checklists and interviews. Available measures of stressful experiences are reviewed and critiqued. Results of this review reveal both substantial progress (i.e., development of valid stressor assessment tools) and remaining problems (i.e., inconsistent measurement across studies). The second half of this article reviews studies that have tested for prospective associations between stressors and symptoms of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Studies that have examined the prospective effects of recent or prior stressors on current psychological symptoms, while controlling for prior psychological symptoms, are reviewed. Results overall suggest that stressors predict changes in rates of symptoms of psychopathology in children and adolescents over time. Results also suggest that symptoms of psychopathology predict changes in rates of stressors over time. Implications of these findings are that conclusive evidence now exists for the importance of stressors in the development of child and adolescent psychopathology.

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

“…Many cognitive vulnerability theories employ a vulnerability-stress paradigm (e.g., Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978;Beck, 1967), whereby cognitive factors interact with environmental stressors to increase risk for emotional disorders. Indeed, stressful life experiences predict depression among children and adolescents (see Grant et al, 2004a;Grant, Compas, Thurm, McMahon, & Gipson, 2004b). This relationship appears to be bidirectional, as depressive symptoms also predict increases in objectively assessed stressors among youth (Grant et al, 2004b).…”

“…Indeed, stressful life experiences predict depression among children and adolescents (see Grant et al, 2004a;Grant, Compas, Thurm, McMahon, & Gipson, 2004b). This relationship appears to be bidirectional, as depressive symptoms also predict increases in objectively assessed stressors among youth (Grant et al, 2004b). The assessment of stress in the study of cognitive vulnerability is crucial, as exposure to mild uncontrollable stress during adolescence can impair cognitive functioning (Steinberg, 2004).…”

Inventorying stressful life events as risk factors for psychopathology: Toward resolution of the problem of intracategory variability.

“…For example, a search of the terms life events, life change, stressful life events, and life stress (or a combination of these terms) using PsycINFO (http://www.apa.org/psycinfo) shows an increasing rate of publications on these topics, from 292 in the decade of 1967 to 1976, to 2,126 in 1977 to 1986, to 4,269 in 1987 to Breslau, 2002;Brown & Harris, 1989;Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974;Grant, Compas, Thurm, McMahon, & Gipson, 2004;Gunderson & Rahe, 1974;Paykel, 1974;Rahe & Arthur, 1978 Tor, 1998). The common characteristic of these traditional checklists for research, whether focusing on usual situations or extreme situations, is that they consist of rather broad categories of events (e.g., divorce) rather than detailed descriptions of individual events (e.g., a divorce after a period of marital conflict over the infidelity of one's spouse).…”

“…This voluminous literature documents that life events are related to a wide variety of physical and psychological problems in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research (e.g., Breslau, 2002;Brown & Harris, 1989;Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974;Grant, Compas, Thurm, McMahon, & Gipson, 2004;Gunderson & Rahe, 1974;Paykel, 1974;Rahe & Arthur, 1978).…”

“…These attempts at lifetime coverage of major events are consistent with Meyer's conception of a life chart of fundamentally important environmental incidents and have the potential of providing more comprehensive information about (a) whether the events recur or persist over time to the extent of becoming ongoing difficulties (Brown & Harris, 1978) or chronic stressors (e.g., Lepore, 1997); (b) the role of the events singly and in relation to earlier stressful events in both onset and course of disorder; and (c) reciprocal relations between the occurrence of some types of events that are not completely independent of the behavior of the individual and the occurrence or recurrence of episodes of disorder (Grant et al, 2003(Grant et al, , 2004Hammen, 2005;Monroe & Harkness, 2005). When lifetime coverage involves long periods of recall, as it does in all of the previously mentioned retrospective studies, it is only feasible to focus on major events.…”