Trajectories of depressive symptoms among high risk African-American adolescents
Accepted 31 December 2003.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the trajectories of depressive symptoms among African-American youth and the psychosocial factors associated with these trajectories.
Methods
The sample included 579 African-American adolescents who were at risk of dropping out of school, interviewed annually starting from ninth grade for 4 years. The measures included depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, self-esteem, stress, and active coping; all self-reported. We used cluster analysis to develop longitudinal trajectories of depression in our sample.
Results
Four different trajectories of depressive symptoms were found that represented the changes in depressive symptoms among the participants. These trajectories are: consistently high (15.9%), consistently low (21.1%), decreasing (41.8%), and increasing (21.2%) depressive symptoms. The results from the comparisons of the trajectories indicated that adolescents who presented consistently high levels of depressive symptoms were more likely to be female, reported more anxiety symptoms, lower self-esteem, higher stress, and lower grade point average (GPA) compared with adolescent members of the other trajectories.
Discussion
Depressive symptoms may be manifested in different ways according to the patterns of change. Different correlates are associated with these trajectories of depressive symptoms and provide insights about the antecedents and consequences of the patterns of change in depressive symptoms.
aSchool of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Address correspondence to: Dr. Paula B. Repetto, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029 USA
ABSTRACT