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Negative life events (NLEs) are associated with psychopathology in older adolescents and adults, particularly for women. However, less is known about the association between positive life events (PLEs) and psychopathology. This study examined associations between NLEs, PLEs, and their interaction, and sex differences in associations between PLEs and NLEs on internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Youth completed interviews about NLEs and PLEs. Parents and youth reported on youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms. NLEs were positively associated with youth-reported depression and anxiety and parent-reported youth depression. Female youth had stronger positive associations between NLEs and youth-reported anxiety than male youth. Interactions between PLEs and NLEs were non-significant. Findings for NLEs and psychopathology are extended to earlier in development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Depressive moods and behaviors are developmentally normative, yet potentially impairing, in preschool-aged children. In addition to frequency, duration of behavior is an important parameter to consider when characterizing risk for worsening mood dysregulation. The goal of this study was to identify the duration and severity of depressive moods and behaviors and associations with impairment in a large community sample of preschool-aged children using an online parent-report daily diary., Methods: Primary caregivers (N = 900) of 3-5-year-old children reported the daily duration of each instance of seven depressive moods and behaviors for 14 days. We used item response theory analyses to examine duration item characteristics., Results: Moods and behaviors occurred at specific durations to be considered psychometrically severe/rare; for example, instances of sadness had to last an average total of 32 min per day or more, irritability at least 38 min, tantrums at least 30 min, and tearfulness/sensitivity at least 35 min. Longer durations of mood and behavior were associated with daily impairment, as well as older child age and less parental education., Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to delineate specific duration ranges for depressive moods and behaviors in preschool-aged children. These data, coupled with information about the frequency of mood-related behaviors, can assist child practitioners in differentiating normative patterns from less normative mood problems to evaluate which children may be at risk. Future work should identify the duration of depressive moods and behaviors in early childhood that predict clinically significant psychopathology over time., (© 2024 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that higher prenatal maternal inflammation is associated with increased depression risk in adolescent and adult-aged offspring. Prenatal maternal inflammation (PNMI) may increase the likelihood for offspring to have lower cognitive performance, which, in turn, may heighten risk for depression onset. Therefore, this study explored the potential mediating role of childhood cognitive performance in the relationship between PNMI and adolescent depressive symptoms in offspring., Methods: Participants included 696 mother-offspring dyads from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) cohort. Biomarkers of maternal inflammation [interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) and soluble TNF receptor-II (sTNF-RII)] were assayed from first (T1) and second trimester (T2) sera. Childhood (ages 9-11) cognitive performance was assessed via standardized Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a measure of receptive vocabulary correlated with general intelligence. Adolescent (ages 15-17) depressive symptoms were assessed via self-report., Results: There were no significant associations between T1 biomarkers and childhood PPVT or adolescent depressive symptoms. Higher T2 IL1-RA was directly associated with lower childhood PPVT (b = -0.21, SE = 0.08, t = -2.55, p = 0.01), but not with adolescent depressive symptoms. T2 IL-6 was not directly associated with childhood PPVT, but higher T2 IL-6 was directly associated at borderline significance with greater depressive symptoms in adolescence (b = 0.05, SE = 0.03, t = 1.96, p = 0.05). Lower childhood PPVT predicted significantly higher adolescent depressive symptoms (b = -0.07, SE = 0.02, t = -2.99, p < 0.01). There was a significant indirect effect of T2 IL-1RA on adolescent depressive symptoms via childhood PPVT (b = 0.03, 95 % CI = 0.002-0.03) indicating a partially mediated effect. No significant associations were found with T2 sTNF-RII nor IL-8., Conclusions: Lower childhood cognitive performance, such as that indicated by a lower PPVT score, represents a potential mechanism through which prenatal maternal inflammation contributes to adolescent depression risk in offspring., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Importance: Prenatal maternal inflammation has been associated with major depressive disorder in offspring in adulthood as well as with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in childhood; however, the association between prenatal inflammation and offspring depression in adolescence has yet to be examined., Objective: To determine whether maternal levels of inflammatory biomarkers during pregnancy are associated with depressive symptomatology in adolescent-aged offspring and to examine how gestational timing, offspring sex, and childhood psychiatric symptoms impact these associations., Design, Setting, and Participants: This was an observational study of a population-based birth cohort from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), which recruited almost all mothers receiving obstetric care from the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP) in Alameda County, California, between June 1959 and September 1966. Pregnancy data and blood sera were collected from mothers, and offspring psychiatric symptom data were collected in childhood (ages 9-11 years) and adolescence (ages 15-17 years). Mother-offspring dyads with available maternal prenatal inflammatory biomarkers during first and/or second trimesters and offspring depressive symptom data at adolescent follow-up were included. Data analyses took place between March 2020 and June 2023., Exposures: Levels of inflammatory biomarkers (interleukin 6 [IL-6], IL-8, IL-1 receptor antagonist [IL-1RA], and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-II) assayed from maternal sera in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy., Main Outcomes and Measures: Self-reported depressive symptoms at adolescent follow-up., Results: A total of 674 mothers (mean [SD] age, 28.1 [5.9] years) and their offspring (350 male and 325 female) were included in this study. Higher second trimester IL-6 was significantly associated with greater depressive symptoms in offspring during adolescence (b, 0.57; SE, 0.26); P = .03). Moderated mediation analyses showed that childhood externalizing symptoms significantly mediated the association between first trimester IL-6 and adolescent depressive symptoms in male offspring (b, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.02-0.47), while childhood internalizing symptoms mediated the association between second trimester IL-1RA and adolescent depressive symptoms in female offspring (b, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.19-1.75)., Conclusions and Relevance: In this study, prenatal maternal inflammation was associated with depressive symptoms in adolescent-aged offspring. The findings of the study suggest that pathways to adolescent depressive symptomatology from prenatal risk factors may differ based on both the timing of exposure to prenatal inflammation and offspring sex.

Objective: Lower neural response to reward predicts subsequent depression during adolescence. Both pubertal development and biological sex have important effects on reward system development and depression during this period. However, relations among these variables across the transition from childhood to adolescence are not well characterized., Method: Depressive symptoms, pubertal status, and the reward positivity (RewP) event-related potential component, a neural indicator of reward responsivity, were assessed in 609 community-recruited youth at 9, 12, and 15 years of age. Structural equation modeling was used to examine concurrent and prospective relations within and between depression and reward responsiveness as well as the influence of pubertal status and biological sex on these variables across assessments., Results: Stability paths for depression, the RewP, and pubertal status were significant across assessments. Compared with male participants, female participants reported more advanced pubertal status at all assessments, a smaller RewP at age 9, and higher levels of depression at age 15. More advanced pubertal status was associated with a larger RewP at age 15. Most importantly, there were bidirectional prospective effects between the RewP and depression from ages 12 to 15; a lower RewP at age 12 predicted increases in depression at age 15, whereas increased depression at age 12 predicted a lower RewP at age 15., Conclusion: These findings indicate that there are bidirectional prospective effects between reward responsiveness and depression that emerge between ages 12 and 15. This may be a crucial time for studying bidirectional reward responsiveness-depression associations across time., (Copyright © 2023 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. All rights reserved.)

Substance use and depression frequently co-occur. Adolescence appears to be a vulnerable developmental period for increases in both substance use and depressive symptoms, often attributed to rapid maturation of reward and motivation systems. Another contributing factor could be inflammatory signaling, which has been associated with both substance use disorder and depression. Prior research indicates that an increase in inflammatory activity can cause physical and emotional malaise, which resembles depression, and the anhedonia and somatic symptoms could lead to substance use. This perspective that substance use is a type of self-medication in response to anhedonia and subjective experiencing of increased inflammatory physiology has not been investigated previously. To test these associations, we used path analysis to examine concurrent and prospective associations between three pro-inflammatory markers, specific depressive symptoms, and substance use frequency in a diverse sample of older adolescents. Participants completed repeated self-report measures of specific depressive symptoms (i.e., dysphoria, anhedonia, somatic concerns, negative cognitions, and functional difficulties) and substance use frequency. Blood was collected to quantify circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and C-reactive protein (CRP). This analysis showed an indirect effect of IL-6 and TNF-α levels on future substance use, but only via functional difficulties. Substance use also predicted future functional difficulties. Only anhedonia directly predicted future substance use frequency. These findings help to more precisely identify pathways through which inflammatory physiology and specific depressive symptoms synergistically confer risk for substance use., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Although characterizing associations between inflammation and depression may prove critical for informing theory, research, and treatment decisions, extant research has been limited by ignoring the possibility that inflammation may be simultaneously associated with depression broadly and with a subset of symptoms. This lack of direct comparison has hampered attempts to understand inflammatory phenotypes of depression and critically fails to consider that inflammation might be uniquely associated with both depression broadly and individual symptoms., Methods: We used moderated nonlinear factor analysis in 5 NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) cohorts (N = 27,730, 51% female, mean age = 46 years)., Results: C-reactive protein (CRP) is simultaneously associated with latent depression, appetite, and fatigue. Specifically, CRP was associated with latent depression in all 5 samples (rs: 0.044-0.089; ps: < .001-.002) and was associated with both appetite (significant rs: 0.031-0.049, significant ps: .001-.007) and fatigue (significant rs: 0.030-0.054, significant ps: < .001-.029) in 4 samples. These results were largely robust to covariates., Conclusions: Methodologically, these models indicate that the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 is scalar noninvariant as a function of CRP (i.e., identical Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores may represent different constructs in those with high vs. low CRP levels). Therefore, mean comparisons of depression total scores and CRP might be misleading without accounting for symptom-specific associations. Conceptually, these findings indicate that studies investigating inflammatory phenotypes of depression should examine how inflammation is simultaneously related both to depression broadly and to specific symptoms, and whether these relations function via different mechanisms. This has the potential to yield new theoretical insights and may lead to the development of novel therapies for reducing inflammation-related symptoms of depression., (Copyright © 2022 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

There is an extensive literature documenting associations between dimensions of temperament and depressive and anxiety disorders. However, much of the research in this area relies on cross-sectional and monomethod designs, uses samples of older youth and adults, and examines only the main effects of temperament. We examined longitudinal associations between temperamental positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) in early childhood and depressive and anxiety symptoms in adolescence. We assessed temperament using laboratory observations and parent reports, and symptoms using youth and parent report. We also examined potential moderators of these associations, including maternal and paternal history of depressive and anxiety disorders, youth experience of stressful life events, and parenting styles. Early childhood NE was associated with both adolescent depression and anxiety. Additionally, life events and psychological controlling and firm parenting moderated the associations between NE and depression symptoms, and maternal depression, paternal anxiety, and psychological controlling and firm parenting moderated the associations between NE and anxiety symptoms. Interaction effects were largely consistent with diathesis-stress interpretations. These findings show that temperamental NE, but not PE, is prospectively associated with risk for depressive and anxiety symptoms in adolescence, and that multiple additional factors potentiate these associations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: In recent years, epidemiological and clinical studies have revealed that depressive disorders can present in early childhood. To clarify the validity and prognostic significance of early childhood-onset depression, we investigated diagnostic and functional outcomes in later childhood and adolescence., Methods: A community sample (N = 516) was assessed for psychopathology at ages 3 and 6 using the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment. When participants were 9, 12, and 15 years old, children and parents completed the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia and measures of symptoms and functioning., Results: In models adjusting for covariates, depressed 3/6-year-old children were more likely to experience subsequent episodes of depressive disorders and exhibited significantly higher rates of later anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and suicidality compared to children without depressive disorders at age 3/6. Early childhood depression was also associated with higher levels of mother, but not child, reported depressive symptoms at age 15 compared to children without depressive disorders at age 3/6. Finally, depression at age 3/6 predicted lower levels of global and interpersonal functioning and higher rates of treatment at age 15 compared to children without depressive disorders at age 3/6., Conclusions: Results support the clinical significance of depression in 3/6-year-old children, although further studies with larger samples are needed., (© 2021 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Background: A growing body of research has demonstrated that adolescent offspring of depressed parents show diminished responding in the ventral striatum to reward. More recent work has suggested that altered reward responding may emerge earlier than adolescence in offspring at familial risk for depression, although factors associated with neural alterations in childhood remain poorly understood., Methods: We tested whether 6- to 8-year-old children, 49% at heightened risk for depression via maternal history, showed altered neural responding to winning reward. We evaluated whether maternal socialization of positive emotion moderated the association between familial risk and child neural response to reward. Participants were 49 children 6 to 8 years of age (24 with a maternal history of recurrent or chronic depression, 25 with no maternal history of any psychiatric disorder). Children underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing the Doors Guessing Task, a widely used reward guessing task. Mothers reported their use of encouraging and dampening responses to child positive affect., Results: Findings demonstrated that children at high familial risk for depression showed lower ventral striatum responding to winning reward relative to low-risk children, but only when mothers used less encouragement or greater dampening responses to their child's positive emotion expressions., Conclusions: Neural reward alterations in the ventral striatum may emerge earlier than previously thought, as early as 6 to 8 years of age, specifically in the context of maternal discouragement of child positive emotions. Clinical interventions that focus on coaching mothers on how to encourage child positive emotions may be beneficial for supporting child reward-related brain development., (Copyright © 2022 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Initial reports suggest that mental health problems were elevated early in the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have followed-up participants as the pandemic evolved and examined both between and within person predictors of symptom trajectories. In the current study, adolescents and young adults (N=532) in New York were surveyed monthly between March 27 th and July 14 th , 2020, a period spanning the first peak and subsequent decline in COVID-19 infection rates in the region. Surveys assessed symptoms of depression and anxiety using the Child Depression Inventory and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders, as well as experiences related to the pandemic. Multilevel growth modeling indicated that symptoms of depression and anxiety peaked around late April/early May and then decreased through May-July. Some pandemic experiences followed a similar quadratic trajectory, while others decreased linearly across the study. Specific relationships emerged between some types of pandemic experiences and depression and anxiety symptoms. While symptoms of depression and anxiety in youth may have been elevated early in the pandemic, these findings suggest they subsided across Spring-Summer of 2020, with higher levels of both corresponding to a period of peak infection rates and decreases paralleling the decline in pandemic experiences and COVID-19 infection rates., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Depression and other psychopathology are often assessed retrospectively. Few studies have evaluated the validity of these reports by comparing prospectively-assessed symptoms to retrospective reports during the same time period., Methods: This study utilized a subset of participants (n = 68) from the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project who completed at least one mailer assessment of depressive symptoms during a retrospectively-reported depressive episode. Participants completed up to seven mailer assessments of depression and suicidal ideation and diagnostic assessments that included retrospectively-reported depressive episodes that coincided with the mailer assessments., Results: Multilevel linear models examined differences in depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation during and between retrospectively-reported depressive episodes. Results showed that individuals reported significantly higher levels of depression and suicidal ideation for retrospectively-reported depressive episodes compared to when they were not in depressive episodes. In addition, the average level of depressive symptoms endorsed during retrospectively-reported depressive episodes reached established clinical cut-offs., Limitations: Although we were able to determine whether symptoms during retrospectively-reported depressive episodes approached clinical cut-offs, we were unable to examine whether symptoms met criteria for depressive episodes. Additionally, we could not examine whether episode severity related to recall ability, and other forms of psychopathology were not assessed., Conclusion: These findings provide critical evidence for the validity of retrospectively-reported depressive episodes. Future research should examine whether these findings generalize across varying recall periods and retrospective assessments for other psychopathology., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Cross-sectional studies in adults have long identified differences in cortical structure in adults with depression compared to healthy adults, with most studies identifying reductions in grey matter volume, cortical thickness, and surface area in primarily frontal cortical regions including the OFC, ACC, and variable sub-regions of the PFC. However, when, why, and for whom these neural correlates of depression emerge remains poorly understood, necessitating developmental study of associations between depression and cortical structure. We systematically reviewed studies examining these associations in child/adolescent samples, and applied a developmentally-focused diathesis-stress model to understand the impacts of depressogenic risk-factors and stressors on the development of structural neural correlates of depression. Cross-sectional findings in youth are generally similar to those found in adults, but vary in magnitude and direction of effects. Preliminary evidence suggests that age, sex, severity, and comorbidity moderate these associations. Longitudinal studies show depression prospectively predicting cortical structure and structure predicting emerging depression. Consistent with a diathesis-stress model, associations have been noted between risk-factors for depression (e.g., genetic risk, family risk) and environmental stressors (e.g., early life stress) and structural neural correlates. Further investigation of these associations across development with attention to vulnerability factors and stressors is indicated., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Parent reports of child temperament, especially those of mothers', are frequently used in research and clinical practice, but there are concerns that maternal characteristics, including a history of psychopathology, might bias reports on these measures. However, whether maternal reports of youth temperament show structural differences based on mothers' psychiatric history is unclear. We therefore conducted tests of measurement invariance to examine whether maternal psychopathology was associated with structural aspects of child temperament as a means of evaluating potential biases related to mothers' mental disorder history. From 2 community-based studies of child temperament, 935 mothers completed the Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) and semistructured diagnostic interviews that assessed their own lifetime history of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Mothers also completed a measure of depressive symptoms concurrent to their completion of the CBQ. We found little evidence that mothers' current depressive symptoms or history of depressive symptoms, anxiety, or substance use disorders were associated with the structure of their reports of child temperament. Thus, there is little empirical support for systematic biases in reports of youth temperament as indexed by psychometric modeling. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Responses to affect include cognitive processes (i.e., perseverative vs. non-perseverative) and valence (i.e., modulation of positive vs. negative affect). However, little research has examined how the factor structure of responses to affect is defined along one or both of these dimensions. The present study conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of items from assessments of repetitive negative thinking, rumination on positive affect (PA), and dampening. We also examined the associations between emergent factors and measures of depressive symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and non-social state anxiety. EFA results suggested a three-factor model of repetitive negative thinking, dampening, and rumination on PA. There was a significant association between repetitive negative thinking and dampening factors, but not between other factors. Repetitive negative thinking and dampening were associated with greater internalizing symptoms, whereas rumination on PA was associated with fewer internalizing symptoms. These findings clarify the structure of these responses to affect and their differential associations with symptoms, which may be used to tailor cognitive interventions for anxiety and/or depression., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: There is substantial evidence that many depressed individuals experience impaired executive functioning. Understanding the causes of executive dysfunction in depression is clinically important because cognitive impairment is a substantial contributor to functional impairment. This study investigated whether elevated levels of an inflammatory cytokine [interleukin-6 (IL-6)] and/or higher body mass index (BMI) concurrently and/or prospectively accounted for the relationship between depressive symptoms and impaired executive functioning in adolescents., Methods: A diverse, community sample of adolescents (N = 288; mean age = 16.33; 51.4% female; 59.0% African-American) completed assessments of height and weight, IL-6, depressive symptoms, and self-report/behavioral measures of executive functioning (selective attention, switching attention) and future orientation annually over 3 years. Adolescents experiencing acute illness or medical conditions that affect inflammation were excluded from analyses. Path analysis within a structural equation modeling framework simultaneously examined the concurrent and prospective relationships between BMI, IL-6, depressive symptoms, and the measures of cognitive functioning across three timepoints., Results: Across all timepoints, higher BMI was prospectively associated with higher levels of IL-6 and depressive symptoms, while higher levels of IL-6 were associated with worse performance on three behavioral and self-report measures of cognitive functioning. Higher depressive symptoms also were prospectively associated with elevated IL-6 and both higher depressive symptoms and a higher BMI predicted worse future executive functioning via increased IL-6., Conclusions: More severe depressive symptoms and increased BMI may disrupt executive functioning via elevated IL-6.

Depressive disorders can be observed in early childhood and are associated with significant concurrent and prospective impairment; however, little is known about day-to-day variations in common depressive behaviors in children. This study examined the day-to-day variability of two common depressive behaviors in preschool-aged children, sadness and irritability, and factors associated with the daily occurrence of these behaviors. Participants included 291 parents of preschool-aged children, and parents completed a 14-day daily diary. Results indicated that sleep quality did not prospectively predict next-day sadness or irritability the following day. We observed between-person stability, but within-person variability, in children's sadness and irritability across 14 days. We observed greater between-person stability and greater within-person variability in sadness and irritability for males and for children with fewer baseline psychiatric symptoms and lower baseline impairment. Findings provide a developmental perspective on normative patterns of sadness and irritability in young children and can inform prevention and individualized intervention efforts to reduce negative sequelae in at-risk preschoolers.

The evidence supporting the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a cognitive construct well established in the anxiety literature, and depression is mixed. Some research has demonstrated a direct association between IU and depression, whereas other studies suggest that IU is either unrelated or indirectly related to depression through other pathways, including anxiety. The present study aimed to further elucidate the relationship between IU and depression in an undergraduate sample (N = 221). We posited a model in which worry and anxiety account for unique variance in the association between IU and depression. Results supported this hypothesis. Worry and trait anxiety significantly accounted for unique variance in the relationship between IU and depression. Furthermore, the model that best fit the data included two additional direct paths, from IU to anxiety and from worry to depression, and excluded the direct path from IU to depression. Our findings support the notion that IU and depression are indirectly related through worry and anxiety. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Depressive emotions and behaviors, such as sadness, irritability, and sleep difficulties, are often early-emerging, impairing, and persistent. However, these behaviors are normative in early development, so it is critical to identify the spectrum of behaviors that may be relevant to the development of depression. This study characterizes the frequency and severity of depressive behaviors and impairment in preschool-aged children using a novel daily diary method with 291 parents. A coherent depression dimension was identified, and the specific frequency at which individual behaviors were identified as severe is reported. Behaviors such as sadness, irritability, and tearfulness/sensitivity were found to be relatively normative, whereas other behaviors (e.g., low interest/pleasure, low self-worth) were less normative. These are the first known data to delineate empirical information about the frequency and severity of behaviors that may be relevant to the development of depression; such data provide quantitative information for child practitioners to make distinctions between developmentally typical and problematic behavior, which is essential for improving assessment and minimizing impairing developmental trajectories.

The ability of the autonomic nervous system to flexibly adapt to environmental changes is thought to indicate efficient use of self-regulatory resources. Deficits in autonomic reactivity appear to characterize current depression; however, whether autonomic reactivity confers vulnerability to future depression when individuals encounter environmental stressors is unknown. Fluctuations in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart rate (HR) were evaluated in response to emotion-eliciting films among 134 undergraduates. Negative events and depressive symptoms were assessed 5 times across 12 weeks. Multilevel modeling demonstrated that smaller decreases in RSA in response to sadness, greater increases in HR following sadness, and smaller increases in HR to amusement were prospectively associated with greater depressive symptoms when individuals encountered high levels of idiographically assessed negative events. These results demonstrate that the lack of contextually appropriate autonomic reactivity may confer vulnerability to depression under conditions of environmental stress, perhaps due to attenuated capacity for effective self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

According to diathesis-stress models, temperament traits such as negative emotionality (NE) may moderate the effects of stressors on the development of symptoms of psychopathology, although little research has tested such models in children. Moreover, there are few data on whether specific facets of NE (sadness, fear, or anger) may specifically moderate the effects of stress on depression versus anxiety. Finally, there is a paucity of research examining whether childhood temperament moderates the effect of disaster exposure on depressive or anxiety symptoms. Hurricane Sandy, which affected many thousands of people in New York State and the surrounding regions in October 2012, offers a unique opportunity to address these gaps. Seven to eight years prior to Hurricane Sandy, 332 children 3 years old completed lab-based measures of NE and its facets. Six years later, when they were 9 years old, each mother rated her child's depressive and anxiety symptoms. Approximately 8 weeks post-Sandy (an average of 1 year after the age 9 assessment), mothers again rated their child's depressive and anxiety symptoms, as well as a measure of exposure to stress from Hurricane Sandy. Adjusting for symptom levels at age 9, higher levels of stress from Hurricane Sandy predicted elevated levels of depressive symptoms only in participants with high levels of temperamental sadness and predicted elevated levels of anxiety symptoms only in participants high in temperamental fearfulness. These findings support the role of early childhood temperament as a diathesis for psychopathology and highlight the importance of considering facets of temperament when examining their relationship to psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

Social anxiety and depressive symptoms dramatically increase and frequently co-occur during adolescence. Although research indicates that general interpersonal stressors, peer victimization, and familial emotional maltreatment predict symptoms of social anxiety and depression, it remains unclear how these stressors contribute to the sequential development of these internalizing symptoms. Thus, the present study examined the sequential development of social anxiety and depressive symptoms following the occurrence of interpersonal stressors, peer victimization, and familial emotional maltreatment. Participants included 410 early adolescents (53% female; 51% African American; Mean age =12.84 years) who completed measures of social anxiety and depressive symptoms at three time points (Times 1-3), as well as measures of general interpersonal stressors, peer victimization, and emotional maltreatment at Time 2. Path analyses revealed that interpersonal stressors, peer victimization, and emotional maltreatment predicted both depressive and social anxiety symptoms concurrently. However, depressive symptoms significantly mediated the pathway from interpersonal stressors, peer victimization, and familial emotional maltreatment to subsequent levels of social anxiety symptoms. In contrast, social anxiety did not mediate the relationship between these stressors and subsequent depressive symptoms. There was no evidence of sex or racial differences in these mediational pathways. Findings suggest that interpersonal stressors, including the particularly detrimental stressors of peer victimization and familial emotional maltreatment, may predict both depressive and social anxiety symptoms; however, adolescents who have more immediate depressogenic reactions may be at greater risk for later development of symptoms of social anxiety.

Emotion regulation has been implicated in the etiology of depression. A first step in adaptive emotion regulation involves emotional clarity, the ability to recognize and differentiate one's emotional experience. As family members are critical in facilitating emotional understanding and communication, we examined the impact of family functioning on adolescent emotional clarity and depressive symptoms. We followed 364 adolescents (ages 14-17; 52.5% female; 51.4 % Caucasian, 48.6% African American) and their mothers over 2 years (3 time points) and assessed emotional clarity, depressive symptoms, and adolescents' and mothers' reports of family functioning. Emotional clarity mediated the relationship between adolescents' reports of family functioning and depressive symptoms at all time points cross-sectionally, and according to mothers' reports of family functioning at Time 1 only. There was no evidence of longitudinal mediation for adolescents' or mothers' reports of family functioning. Thus, family functioning, emotional clarity, and depressive symptoms are strongly related constructs during various time points in adolescence, which has important implications for intervention, especially within the family unit.

Given that depression in men is associated with risk for seriously adverse consequences, evaluating how putative neural mechanisms of depression-such as reward-related frontostriatal connectivity-may be altered in late adolescent boys with a history of depression is an important research aim. Adolescents and adults with depression have been demonstrated to show blunted striatal response and heightened medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation to winning reward. Function in reward circuits appears to be best understood as coordination of regions within frontostriatal circuitry, and alterations to this circuitry could occur in those with a history of depression. The current study evaluated functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and mPFC in a sample of 166 ethnically diverse boys with and without a history of depression. Participants completed an fMRI monetary reward paradigm at age 20. Lifetime history of depression and other psychiatric illnesses was measured prospectively and longitudinally, using structured clinical interviews at 7 time points from ages 8 to 20. Boys with a history of depression showed heightened positive connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and the mPFC relative to boys with no psychiatric history when winning rewards relative to losing rewards. This altered frontostriatal connectivity pattern was also associated with greater number of depressive episodes in the boys' lifetime. History of depression in late adolescent boys may be associated with altered coordination between the nucleus accumbens and mPFC when winning reward. This coordination could reflect oversignaling of the mPFC to dampen typical ventral striatum response or enhance weak ventral striatum response.

Although multiple studies find that offspring of depressed mothers are at risk for depressive disorders, there is uncertainty about the specific mechanisms that are at work--particularly with respect to modifiable factors that might be targeted for early intervention. The present work examines that parenting behaviors may operate as mediators, moderators, or independent influences on the development of youth depressive symptoms. One hundred one mothers and their early adolescent children participated in positive and negative interaction tasks. Maternal and youth self-reports of youth depressive symptoms were collected at baseline, 9-month, and 18-month assessments. Maternal history of depression was significantly associated with maternal-reported, but not youth self-reported, depressive symptomatology. Maternal positive and negative interaction behaviors in positive contexts were associated with higher youth self-reported depressive symptoms. Maternal positive interaction behaviors in positive contexts and maternal negative interactive behaviors in conflict contexts were associated with higher youth self-reported depressive symptoms. We found no evidence for maternal interaction behaviors serving as a mediator and little evidence of maternal interaction behaviors serving as a moderator of the relationship between maternal and offspring depression. Low maternal positive engagement tended to be more consistently associated with maternal- and self-reported youth depressive symptoms. The present findings suggest that characteristics of mother-child interactions that are associated with youth depressive symptomatology are pertinent to youth with and without a mother with a history of depression.

Objective: Offspring of depressed parents are at risk for developing depression at rates higher than the general population. One potential mechanism linking parent and offspring depression involves attenuated reward function. Despite the importance of social incentives for adolescents, no previous studies have relied on active social incentive reward paradigms in youth at risk for depression. The present study examined differences in youth self- and parent-report measures of and neural response to social reward between youth of mothers with and those of mothers without a history of depression., Methods: Imaging data were collected on 10 youth with a depressed parent and 23 youth without depressed parent, which included a task examining neural response to social rewards. Youth and parents also completed self-report measures of social reward., Results: Offspring of depressed parents had lower levels of parent-reported affiliation and reduced neural response to social reward in the ventral striatum and anterior cingulate cortex than offspring of parents without a history of depression. Higher parent-reported affiliation was associated with greater ventral striatal response to social reward. Data suggest that risk status differences in ventral striatal response to social acceptance may be accounted for by affiliation. No differences were found in youth self-reports of behavior., Conclusions: The results suggest that attenuated response to social reward, assessed through neurobiology and behavior, may be mechanistically linked to the etiology and pathophysiology of depression. Targeting social interest and engagement may be a new direction in preventing the onset of depressive disorders in youth.

Risk for depression is expressed across multiple levels of analysis. For example, parental depression and cognitive vulnerability are known markers of depression risk, but no study has examined their interactive effects on children's cortisol reactivity, a likely mediator of early depression risk. We examined relations across these different levels of vulnerability using cross-sectional and longitudinal methods in two community samples of children. Children were assessed for cognitive vulnerability using self-reports (Study 1; n = 244) and tasks tapping memory and attentional bias (Study 2; n = 205), and their parents were assessed for depression history using structured clinical interviews. In both samples, children participated in standardized stress tasks and cortisol reactivity was assessed. Cross-sectionally and longitudinally, parental depression history and child cognitive vulnerability interacted to predict children's cortisol reactivity; associations between parent depression and elevated child cortisol activity were found when children also showed elevated depressotypic attributions as well as attentional and memory biases. Findings indicate that models of children's emerging depression risk may benefit from the examination of the interactive effects of multiple sources of vulnerability across levels of analysis.

Longitudinal mixture models have become popular in the literature. However, modest attention has been paid to whether these models provide a better fit to the data than growth models. Here, we compared longitudinal mixture models to growth models in the context of changes in depression and anxiety symptoms in a community sample of girls from age 10 to 17. Model comparisons found that the preferred solution was a 5-class parallel process growth mixture model that differed in the course of depression and anxiety symptoms reflecting both ordering of symptoms and qualitative group differences. Comparisons between classes revealed substantive differences on a number of outcomes using this solution. Findings are discussed in the context of clinical assessment and implementation of growth mixture models.

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by significant increases in the onset of depression, but also by increases in depressive symptoms, even among psychiatrically healthy youth. Disrupted reward function has been postulated as a critical factor in the development of depression, but it is still unclear which adolescents are particularly at risk for rising depressive symptoms. We provide a conceptual stance on gender, pubertal development, and reward type as potential moderators of the association between neural response to reward and rises in depressive symptoms. In addition, we describe preliminary findings that support claims of this conceptual stance. We propose that (1) status-related rewards may be particularly salient for eliciting neural response relevant to depressive symptoms in boys, whereas social rewards may be more salient for eliciting neural response relevant to depressive symptoms in girls and (2) the pattern of reduced striatal response and enhanced medial prefrontal response to reward may be particularly predictive of depressive symptoms in pubertal adolescents. We found that greater vmPFC activation when winning rewards predicted greater increases in depressive symptoms over 2 years, for boys only, and less striatal activation when anticipating rewards predicted greater increases in depressive symptoms over 2 years, for adolescents in mid to late pubertal stages but not those in pre to early puberty. We also propose directions for future studies, including the investigation of social vs. monetary reward directly and the longitudinal assessment of parallel changes in pubertal development, neural response to reward, and depressive symptoms., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We assessed if the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) measures anxiety symptoms similarly across age groups within adolescence. This is crucial for valid comparison of anxiety levels between different age groups. Anxiety symptoms were assessed biennially in a representative population sample (n = 2226) at three time points (age range 10-17 years) using the RCADS anxiety subscales (generalized anxiety disorder [GAD], obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD], panic disorder [PD], separation anxiety [SA], social phobia [SP]). We examined longitudinal measurement invariance of the RCADS, using longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis, by examining the factor structure (configural invariance), factor loadings (metric invariance) and thresholds (strong invariance). We found that all anxiety subtypes were configural invariant. Metric invariance held for items on the GAD, OCD, PD and SA subscales; yet, for the SP subscale three items showed modest longitudinal variation at age 10-12. Model fit decreased modestly when enforcing additional constraints across time; however, model fit for these models was still adequate to excellent. We conclude that the RCADS measures anxiety symptoms similarly across time in a general population sample of adolescents; hence, measured changes in anxiety symptoms very likely reflect true changes in anxiety levels. We consider the instrument suitable to assess anxiety levels across adolescence., (Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in adolescents is characterized by alterations in positive emotions and reward processing. Recent investigations using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) find depression-related differences in reward anticipation. However, it is unknown whether feedback influences subsequent reward anticipation, which may highlight the context of reward processing. Ten youth with MDD and 16 youth with no history of MDD completed an fMRI assessment using a reward task. Reward anticipation was indexed by blood oxygen level dependent signal change in the striatum following winning, losing, non-winning, and non-losing outcomes. A significant interaction between diagnostic status and outcome condition predicted reward anticipation in the caudate. Decomposition of the interaction indicated that following winning outcomes, depressed youth demonstrated reduced reward anticipation relative to healthy youth. However, no significant differences between depressed and healthy youth were found after other outcomes. Reward anticipation is altered following winning outcomes. This finding has implications for understanding the developmental pathophysiology of MDD and suggests specific contexts where altered motivational system functioning may play a role in maintaining depression., (2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study aimed to characterize affective functioning in families of youth at high familial risk for depression, with particular attention to features of affective functioning that appear to be critical to adaptive functioning but have been underrepresented in prior research including: positive and negative affect across multiple contexts, individual and transactional processes, and affective flexibility. Interactions among early adolescents (ages 9-14) and their mothers were coded for affective behaviors across both positive and negative contexts. Primary analyses compared never-depressed youth at high (n = 44) and low (n = 57) familial risk for depression. The high risk group showed a relatively consistent pattern for low positive affect across negative and positive contexts at both the individual and transactional level. In contrast to prior studies focusing on negative contexts that did not support disruptions in negative affect among high risk youth, the data from this study suggest variability by context (i.e. increased negativity in a positive, but not negative, context), and individual vs. transactional processes (e.g., negative escalation). Findings are discussed in concert with attention to affect flexibility, contextual and transactional factors.

Background: Offspring of depressed parents experience impairment in a number of domains of functioning. Few studies have examined the impact of both maternal and paternal depression and co-morbid psychopathology on offspring functioning., Method: Oregon Adolescent Depression Project participants were administered diagnostic interviews and completed measures of psychosocial functioning during adolescence (mean = 16.6, S.D. = 1.19) and again during young adulthood (mean = 24.5, S.D. = 0.51). Diagnostic interviews were also conducted with the mothers and fathers of the target individual., Results: After controlling for relevant demographic characteristics, parental co-morbid psychopathology, and offspring psychopathology, maternal depression was associated with higher levels of physical symptoms (beta = 0.14, S.E. = 0.07) during adolescence, and higher levels of minor stressors (beta = 2.52, S.E. = 1.07) and a greater risk for using mental health services (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.14-3.03) in young adulthood. Paternal depression was associated with offspring experiencing more major stressors (beta = 0.27, S.E. = 0.07), having lower perceived social competence (beta = -0.17, S.E. = 0.08), and being more likely to attempt suicide (OR 2.65, 95% CI 1.19-5.92) during adolescence, as well as lower perceived social competence (beta = -1.21, S.E. = 0.49) in young adulthood.Conclusions. Offspring of depressed parents demonstrate impairment in a variety of domains, even after controlling for the effects of their own psychopathology. Further research on the mechanisms that lead to these impairments, as well as the role of these impairments in the subsequent development of psychopathology, is warranted.

Adolescence is a period of human development associated with increased emotional intensity and heightened vulnerability to developing psychopathology. This study used Latent Class Analysis to identify subgroups of youth based on emotional clarity and cognitive response styles. Participants were 436 adolescents (51.8% female; 48.2% African-American/Black, 47.4% Caucasian/White) who completed measures of emotional clarity, cognitive response styles, and depression at baseline (M = 13.02 years, SD = .83), and at a 1-year and 4-year follow-up. Four classes were identified and used to predict depression outcomes. Overall, youth with above average emotional clarity who reported using a variety of adaptive cognitive response styles also had the lowest level of depressive symptoms at baseline. Class membership did not predict depressive symptoms at any follow-up. The results suggest that the unique profiles based on youth reported levels of emotional clarity and use of problem solving, distraction, and rumination, may not be more predictive of depression outcomes, beyond earlier assessments of depression or by examining these facets in isolation.

Offspring of depressed parents are at risk for depression and recent evidence suggests that reduced positive affect (PA) may be a marker of risk. We investigated whether self-reports of PA and fMRI-measured striatal response to reward, a neural correlate of PA, are reduced in adolescent youth at high familial risk for depression (HR) relative to youth at low familial risk for depression (LR). Functional magnetic resonance imaging assessments were conducted with 14 HR and 12 LR youth. All youth completed an ecological momentary assessment protocol to measure PA in natural settings and a self-report measure of depression symptomatology. Analyses found that HR youth demonstrated lower striatal response than LR youth during both reward anticipation and outcome. However, after controlling for youth self-reports of depression, HR youth demonstrated lower striatal response than LR youth only during reward anticipation. No significant differences were found between HR and LR youth on subjective ratings of PA or depressive symptoms. Results are consistent with previous findings that reduced reward response is a marker of risk for depression, particularly during reward anticipation, even in the absence of (or accounting for) disrupted subjective mood. Further examinations of prospective associations between reward response and depression onset are needed.

A subset of preschool-aged children meets criteria for impairing and persistent anxiety and depression. However, the overlap between normative emotional development and impairing symptoms complicates assessments of internalizing problems in early childhood. Given the benefits of early identification/prevention and avoiding overpathologizing typical development, empirical information is needed to norm expression of internalizing behaviors. In this 14-day online diary study, 609 primary caregivers of 3- to 5-year-old children reported the frequency of children's daily separation and social anxiety and depressive behaviors and impairment. Item response theory analyses quantified specific frequencies at which each behavior was psychometrically severe/rare. Patterns varied for each behavior; for example, distress when anticipating separation had to occur at least 10 times and sadness at least 35 times over 14 days to be considered severe. Most social anxiety behaviors had to occur approximately every other day to be considered severe. Parameters did not vary by child age or sex, and behaviors were significantly associated with impairment. These data provide empirical information for refining internalizing behavior assessment in preschool-aged children and can be used as benchmarks by child practitioners to assess the extent to which frequencies fall in the range of developmentally typical behavior versus those that may be more severe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cerebellum is one-third the size of the cerebrum yet holds twice the number of neurons. Historically, its sole function was thought to be in the calibration of smooth movements through the creation and ongoing modification of motor programs. This traditional viewpoint has been challenged by findings showing that cerebellar damage can lead to striking changes in non-motor behavior, including emotional changes. In this manuscript, we review the literature on clinical and subclinical affective disturbances observed in individuals with lesions to the cerebellum. Disorders include pathological laughing and crying, bipolar disorder, depression and mixed mood changes. We propose a theoretical model based on cerebellar connectivity to explain how the cerebellum calibrates affect. We conclude with actionable steps for future researchers to test this model and improve upon the limitations of past literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are reports of increases in levels of internalizing psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these studies presume that measurement properties of these constructs remained unchanged from before the pandemic. In this study, we examined longitudinal measurement invariance of assessments of depression, anxiety, and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in adolescents and young adults from ongoing longitudinal studies. We found consistent support for configural and metric invariance across all constructs, but scalar invariance was unsupported for depression and IU. Thus, it is necessary to interpret pandemic-associated mean-level changes in depression and IU cautiously. In contrast, mean-level comparisons of panic, generalized, and social anxiety symptoms were not compromised. These findings are limited to the specific measures examined and the developmental period of the sample. We acknowledge that there is tremendous distress accompanying disruptions due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, for some instruments, comparisons of symptom levels before and during the pandemic may be limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal depression is associated with disrupted responsiveness during mother–infant dyadic interactions. Less research has evaluated whether responsivity between mother and offspring is altered in interactions during the preschool years, a period of vast socio‐emotional development. In the current study, 72 mothers and preschoolers engaged in a positive emotion‐eliciting task, in which they drew and talked about a recent fun experience, and independent coders separately rated mother and child emotion in 10‐s intervals. Lagged multilevel models demonstrated that for dyads with currently depressed mothers, but not for healthy mothers or mothers with a past history of depression, greater child positive affect was associated with lower frequency and intensity of mother positive affect 10 s later. The effect of mother positive affect on child response was not significant. Findings suggest that the ability to acknowledge, imitate, and elaborate children's positive emotion during early childhood is altered in the context of depression, but that this altered responsiveness may improve with recovery from depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal history of depression is a strong predictor of depression in offspring and linked to structural and functional alterations in the developing brain. However, very little work has examined differences in white matter in adolescents at familial risk for depression. In a sample aged 9–14 (n = 117), we used tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to examine differences in white matter microstructure between adolescents with (n = 42) and without (n = 75) maternal history of depression. Microstructure was indexed using fractional anisotropy (FA). Threshold-free cluster enhancement was applied and cluster maps were thresholded at whole-brain family-wise error <.05. There was no significant main effect of risk status on FA. However, there was a significant interaction between risk status and age, such that large and diffuse portions of the white matter skeleton showed relatively increased FA with age for youth with a maternal history of depression compared to those without. Most tracts identified by the interaction were robust to controlling for sex, youth internalizing, in-scanner motion, neighborhood SES, and intra-cranial volume, evidence that maternal depression is a unique predictor of white matter alterations in youth. Widespread increases in FA with age may correspond to a global pattern of accelerated brain maturation in youth at risk for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anxiety disorders are prevalent in youth and associated with later depressive disorders. A recent model posits three distinct anxiety-depression pathways. Pathway 1 represents youth with a diathesis to anxiety that increases risk for depressive disorders; Pathway 2 describes youth with a shared anxiety-depression diathesis; and Pathway 3 consists of youth with a diathesis for depression who develop anxiety as a consequence of depression impairment. This is the first partial test of this model following cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for child anxiety.Method: The present study included individuals (N = 66; M age = 27.23 years, SD = 3.54) treated with CBT for childhood anxiety disorders 7-19 years (M = 16.24; SD = 3.56) earlier. Information regarding anxiety (i.e., social phobia (SoP), separation anxiety disorder (SAD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)) and mood disorders (i.e., major depressive disorder (MDD) and dysthymic disorders) was obtained at pretreatment, posttreatment, and one or more follow-up intervals via interviews and self-reports.Results: Evidence of pathways from SoP, SAD, and GAD to later depressive disorders was not observed. Treatment responders evidenced reduced GAD and SoP over time, although SoP was observed to have a more chronic and enduring pattern.Conclusions: Evidence for typically observed pathways from childhood anxiety disorders was not observed. Future research should prospectively examine if CBT treatment response disrupts commonly observed pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Despite growing interest in depression in young children, little is known about which variables predict the onset of depression in early childhood. We examined a range of predictors of the onset of depression diagnoses in a multi-method, multi-informant longitudinal study of a large community sample of young children from ages 3 to 6. Methods Predictors of the onset of depression at age 6 were drawn from five domains assessed when children were 3 years old: child psychopathology (assessed using a parent diagnostic interview), observed child temperament, teacher ratings of peer functioning, parental psychopathology (assessed using a diagnostic interview), and psychosocial environment (observed parental hostility, parent-reported family stressors, parental education). Results A number of variables predicted the onset of depression by age 6, including child history of anxiety disorders, child temperamental low inhibitory control, poor peer functioning, parental history of mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders, early and recent stressful life events, and less parental education. Conclusions Predictors of the onset of depression in early childhood tend to be similar to those identified in older youth and adults, and support the feasibility of identifying children in greatest need for early intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Depression is characterized by reduced neural response to reward, particularly in the ventral striatum. [•] Few studies have examined if alterations in reward functioning are present before the onset of depression. [•] Youth at high- and low-familial risk for depression completed a reward task during a fMRI scan. [•] High-risk youth had significantly less ventral striatal reactivity than low-risk youth during reward anticipation. [•] Reward functioning is altered in individuals at high-familial risk for depression before the onset of the disorder. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]