Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06519, USA.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2019 Aug;50(4):618-630. doi: 10.1007/s10578-019-00867-8.
Major depressive disorder begins to increase in early adolescence and is associated with significant impairment (e.g., suicidality). Difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) have been associated with depressive symptoms; however, little research has examined this relation over time beginning in early adolescence. Starting when they were 11-14 years old, 246 adolescents (n = 126; n = 158) completed self-report questionnaires on their ER at Time 1 and depressive symptoms every year for 2 years. Results revealed that overall difficulties in ER (and limited access to ER strategies) at Time 1 predicted depressive symptoms both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Gender moderated this relation cross-sectionally, such that higher overall ER difficulties at Time 1 was more strongly associated with higher depressive symptoms for girls than for boys. These findings suggest that depression prevention efforts should promote adaptive ER in early adolescence, particularly for girls, in order to prevent the increases in depressive symptoms seen into middle adolescence.
重度抑郁症始于青少年早期，并与显著的损伤（例如自杀倾向）有关。情绪调节（ER）困难与抑郁症状有关；然而，很少有研究从青少年早期开始，随着时间的推移来检验这种关系。从 11 到 14 岁开始，246 名青少年（n=126；n=158）在第 1 次时完成了关于他们的 ER 和抑郁症状的自我报告问卷，在接下来的 2 年中每年完成一次。结果表明，第 1 次时整体 ER 困难（和有限的 ER 策略的获取）既可以横向预测抑郁症状，也可以纵向预测抑郁症状。性别在横向上调节了这种关系，即第 1 次时整体 ER 困难越高，与女孩的抑郁症状相关性越强，而与男孩的相关性越弱。这些发现表明，预防抑郁的努力应该在青少年早期促进适应性的 ER，特别是对于女孩，以防止进入青春期中期时抑郁症状的增加。
