Sterba Sonya K, Prinstein Mitchell J, Cox Martha J
L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3270, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2007 Spring;19(2):345-66. doi: 10.1017/S0954579407070174.
Developmental psychopathology theory speaks to the existence of early-manifesting internalizing problems with a heterogeneous longitudinal course. However, the course of internalizing problems has been investigated largely from late childhood onward, with methods that assume children's problem trajectories vary more so in rate than in qualitative functional form. This can obscure heterogeneity in symptom process and course, obscure onset of early gender differences in internalizing problems, and obscure the relevance of early sociocontextual risks for long-term internalizing outcomes. The present study addressed these issues by using person-oriented (latent growth mixture) methods to model heterogeneity in maternal-reported internalizing symptoms from age 2 to 11 years (N = 1,364). Three latent trajectory classes were supported for each gender: two-thirds of children followed a low-stable trajectory; smaller proportions followed decreasing/increasing or elevated-stable trajectories. Although the number, shape, and predictive validity of internalizing trajectory classes were similar across gender, trajectory classes' initial values and rates of change varied significantly across gender, as did the impact of maternal postpartum depression and anxiety on latent growth factors. Extracted latent trajectories were differentially predicted by postpartum maternal psychopathology, and themselves, in several respects, differentially predicted self-reported depressive symptoms in preadolescence. However, discussion focuses on the need for further external validation of extracted latent classes.
发展心理病理学理论认为存在早期显现的内化问题，且其纵向发展过程具有异质性。然而，内化问题的发展过程主要是从童年晚期开始研究的，所采用的方法假定儿童问题轨迹在速率上的差异大于在定性功能形式上的差异。这可能会掩盖症状过程和发展过程中的异质性，掩盖内化问题中早期性别差异的出现，以及掩盖早期社会环境风险与长期内化结果的相关性。本研究通过使用以人为本的（潜在增长混合）方法，对母亲报告的2至11岁儿童内化症状的异质性进行建模（N = 1364），解决了这些问题。每个性别都支持三种潜在轨迹类别：三分之二的儿童遵循低稳定性轨迹；较小比例的儿童遵循下降/上升或高稳定性轨迹。尽管内化轨迹类别的数量、形状和预测效度在性别间相似，但轨迹类别的初始值和变化率在性别间存在显著差异，产后母亲抑郁和焦虑对潜在增长因素的影响也是如此。产后母亲的精神病理学对提取的潜在轨迹有不同的预测作用，而这些轨迹本身在几个方面也对青春期前自我报告的抑郁症状有不同的预测作用。然而，讨论集中在对提取的潜在类别进行进一步外部验证的必要性上。
