Department of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2022 Oct;34(4):1544-1559. doi: 10.1017/S0954579421000146. Epub 2021 Apr 29.
Life course theorists posit that sensitive periods exist during life span development where risk and protective factors may be particularly predictive of psychological outcomes relative to other periods in life. While there have been between-cohort studies trying to examine differences in discrimination and depressive symptoms, these studies have not been designed to identify these sensitive periods, which are best modeled by examining intra-individual change across time. To identify sensitive periods where discrimination and shift-&-persist (S&P) - a coping strategy that may protect against the negative impact of discrimination - are most strongly predictive of depressive symptoms, we employed latent growth curve modeling using an accelerated longitudinal design to track intra-individual change in depressive symptoms from ages 20-69. Participants were 3,685 adults measured at three time points ~10 years apart from the Midlife in the United States study ( = 37.93, = 6.948 at Wave I). Results identified two sensitive periods in development where high levels of S&P interacted with discrimination to protect against depressive symptoms; during the 30s and a lagged effect where 40's S&P protected against depressive symptoms when participants were in their 50s. Implications for the life course study of discrimination, coping, and depression are discussed.
生命历程理论家假设，在生命发展的某个敏感时期，风险和保护因素可能对心理结果具有更强的预测作用，而不是在生命中的其他时期。虽然已经有一些队列研究试图探讨歧视和抑郁症状之间的差异，但这些研究并没有设计用来确定这些敏感时期，最好通过检查个体随时间的变化来建模。为了确定歧视和应对策略转变和持续（S&P）的敏感时期，这些策略可能有助于减轻歧视的负面影响，我们采用潜增长曲线模型，采用加速纵向设计，从 20 岁到 69 岁跟踪个体抑郁症状的变化。参与者是 3685 名成年人，他们在美国中年研究中每隔 10 年接受三次测量（波 I 时为 = 37.93， = 6.948）。研究结果确定了两个发展敏感时期，在这两个时期，高水平的 S&P 与歧视相互作用，有助于预防抑郁症状；在 30 多岁和 40 多岁的滞后效应中，当参与者进入 50 多岁时，S&P 有助于预防抑郁症状。讨论了歧视、应对和抑郁的生命历程研究的意义。
