Department of School Psychology and Child and Adolescent Development, Catholic University Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3715, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
J Youth Adolesc. 2012 Jun;41(6):776-87. doi: 10.1007/s10964-011-9726-7. Epub 2011 Nov 2.
Based on current theories of depression, reciprocal links between loneliness and depressive symptoms are expected to occur. However, longitudinal studies on adolescent samples are scarce and have yielded conflicting results. The present five-wave longitudinal study from mid- to late adolescence (N=428, M age at T1=15.22 years; 47% female) examined the direction of effect between loneliness and depressive symptoms, using cross-lagged path analysis. In addition, the robustness of these prospective associations was tested by examining the role of the Big Five personality traits (i.e., extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness) as explaining factors and moderators. Results indicated that loneliness and depressive symptoms influenced one another reciprocally, and these reciprocal associations were not attributable to their mutual overlap with personality traits. In addition, neuroticism was found to be a moderator, in that the bidirectional effects between loneliness and depressive symptoms were only found in adolescents high in neuroticism. Practical implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are outlined.
基于目前的抑郁理论，孤独感和抑郁症状之间预计会存在相互关联。然而，针对青少年样本的纵向研究很少，且结果相互矛盾。本项从中期到后期青春期的五次纵向研究（N=428，T1 时的平均年龄为 15.22 岁；女性占 47%）使用交叉滞后路径分析，考察了孤独感和抑郁症状之间的效应方向。此外，通过检验五大人格特质（即外向性、尽责性、宜人性、神经质和开放性）作为解释因素和调节因素，检验了这些前瞻性关联的稳健性。结果表明，孤独感和抑郁症状相互影响，这些相互关联的关系不能归因于它们与人格特质的相互重叠。此外，神经质被发现是一个调节因素，因为孤独感和抑郁症状之间的双向影响仅在神经质程度高的青少年中存在。讨论了实际意义，并概述了未来研究的建议。
