Department of Psychology, University of Florence, Italy.
J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2012;41(6):746-59. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2012.728155. Epub 2012 Oct 11.
The codevelopment of delinquent behaviors and depressive symptoms from Grade 9 to 11 was investigated on an Italian sample of 518 adolescents (399 male) after the transition to high school, evaluating the time-invariant effects of past school failure and social failure and the time-varying effects of school achievement and social problems. Bivariate latent growth model showed a positive correlation between the two intercepts and the two slopes, suggesting that during adolescence the two trajectories are reciprocally and causally related over time. Time-invariant predictors--past school failure and social failure--explain interindividual variability only for delinquent growth. Time-varying covariates--school achievement and social problems--are significantly associated with both trajectories. These time-varying variables can act as snares, mechanisms responsible for accelerating the otherwise normative pattern of increase of delinquent behaviors and actively retarding the normative decrease of depressive symptoms over adolescence. Findings highlight how interventions aimed to promote competence during adolescence can be an effective way to prevent psychopathology or to reduce its impact.
本研究以意大利 518 名青少年（399 名男性）为样本，探讨了从 9 年级到 11 年级之间违法行为和抑郁症状的共同发展。在进入高中后，评估了过去学业失败和社会失败的时不变效应，以及学校成绩和社会问题的时变效应。双变量潜增长模型显示两个截距和两个斜率之间存在正相关，表明在青春期，这两个轨迹随着时间的推移是相互因果关系的。时不变预测因子——过去的学业失败和社会失败——只能解释违法行为增长的个体差异。时变协变量——学业成绩和社会问题——与两个轨迹都显著相关。这些时变变量可以作为陷阱，是导致违法行为正常增长加速和抑郁症状正常下降受阻的机制。研究结果强调了在青春期促进能力的干预措施如何成为预防精神病理学或减轻其影响的有效途径。
