Why are anxiety and depressive symptoms comorbid in youth? A multi-wave, longitudinal examination of competing etiological models

Abstract Background The present study sought to clarify the development of comorbid emotional distress by comparing different explanations for how youth develop anxiety and depressive symptoms. Specifically, we introduced the diathesis-anxiety approach (whether cognitive vulnerabilities interact wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of affective disorders 2014-06, Vol.161, p.21-29
Main Authors: Cohen, Joseph R, Young, Jami F, Gibb, Brandon E, Hankin, Benjamin L, Abela, John R.Z
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Anxiety
Anxiety - complications
Anxiety-Depression
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Comorbidity
Depression
Depression - complications
Developmental psychopathology
Emotions
Female
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Models, Psychological
Mood disorders
Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Surveys and Questionnaires
Symptoms
Vulnerability
Young people
Youth
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Summary:Abstract Background The present study sought to clarify the development of comorbid emotional distress by comparing different explanations for how youth develop anxiety and depressive symptoms. Specifically, we introduced the diathesis-anxiety approach (whether cognitive vulnerabilities interact with anxiety symptoms), and compared it to a causal model (anxiety symptoms predicting depressive symptoms), and a correlated liabilities model (whether cognitive vulnerabilities interacted with stressors to predict both anxiety and depressive symptoms) to examine which model best explained the relation between depressive and anxiety symptoms in youth. Methods 678 3rd ( n =208), 6th ( n =245), and 9th ( n =225) grade girls ( n =380) and boys ( n =298) completed self-report measures at baseline assessing cognitive vulnerabilities (rumination and self-criticism), stressors, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Every 3 months over the next 18 months, youth completed follow-up measures of symptoms and stressors. Results While limited support was found for a causal ( p >0.10) or correlated-liability model ( p >0.05) for comorbidity, findings did support a diathesis-anxiety approach for both self-criticism ( t (2494)=3.36, p
ISSN:0165-0327
1573-2517
DOI:10.1016/j.jad.2014.02.042