Stability of Depressed Mood in Early Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study. Lynae A. Johnsen, M.A., Susan M. Swearer, Ph.D.

1. INTRODUCTION Early adolescence has been referred to as a stage of transition from childhood into the increasingly complex time of adolescence (Heath & Camarena, 2002). Normative stressors associated with the transition from elementary to middle school add to the heightened risk for the development of depressed mood during adolescence (Clarizio, 1994). Problems in meeting basic developmental challenges during adolescence have been empirically linked to chronically depressed mood (Petersen, Compas, & Brooks-Gunn, 1992). Less than 3% of preadolescent children experience major depressive disorder, whereas 6.4% of adolescents present with clinical levels of depression (Fleming & Offord, 1990). Stability, or persistence in symptomatology has been described as one of the three criteria which permit clinicians to distinguish between a depressive mood state and an isolated depressive episode (Rutter, 1988). Research suggests that incidence of depressed mood increases across adolescence, with many adolescents reporting symptoms of depression at some point during that period of time (Fleming & Offord, 1990). Researchers have found that formerly depressed adolescents who developed psychiatric problems during young adulthood were characterized during adolescence by more severe depressive episodes (e.g., longer episode duration, multiple episodes, greater number of symptoms; Lewinsohn, Rohde, Seeley, Klein, & Gotlib, 2000). Lewinsohn, Rohde, Klein, & Seeley (1999) found that major depressive disorder (MDD) in young adulthood was significantly more common in an adolescent MDD group than nonaffective and no disorder groups. It is widely recognized that increased knowledge of the antecedents and processes underlying depressed mood in early life may contribute to an improved understanding of the nature and course of depression in later life (Lewinsohn et al., 1997). Several longitudinal studies have examined stability of depressed mood across varying units of time in adolescence and have found relatively stable trends in depression scores (Devine, Kempton, & Forehand, 1994; Dubois, Felner, Bartels, & Silverman, 1995; Holsen, Kraft, & Vitterso, 2000; Heath & Camarena, 2002). In contrast, other researchers have concluded that depressive symptoms in adolescents seem to show limited over-time stability (Garrison et al., 1990). Previous research on stability of depressed mood during adolescence has employed basic statistical methods, including examining mean level differences and correlations. The purpose of this study was to examine the stability of depressed mood during early adolescence longitudinally using hierarchical linear modeling. PARTICIPANTS Longitudinal data were collected from a community sample of adolescents in attendance at two Midwestern middle schools. The data were collected at three consecutive time points while students were in the 6th through 9th grades. Ages ranged from 11 to 14 years old (M =12.18; SD = .86) at Time 1. Age ranged from 12 to 15 years old (M = 13.21; SD = .82) at Time 2. Age ranged from 13 to 16 years old (M = 13.93; SD = .74) at Time 3. Racial distribution of the 493 students who participated was: 72% Caucasian, 7.9% African American, 5.5% Asian, 3.9% Latino, 1% Native American, 5.1% Biracial, and .8% Middle Eastern. Stability of Depressed Mood in Early Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study.Lynae A. Johnsen, M.A., Susan M. Swearer, Ph.D., & Jami E. Givens, B.A.The University of Nebraska-Lincoln