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The role of pubertal progress in the development of depression in early adolescence
S Laitinen-Krispijn1, J van der Ende, F C Verhulst
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus University Rotterdam/Sophia Children's Hospital, The Netherlands.
Background:
Lack of longitudinal studies on the relationship between pubertal progress and changes in depression during adolescence.
Methods:
Changes in the Anxious/Depressed scores of the Child Behavior Checklist and Youth Self-Report were predicted from pubertal progress. Subjects were young adolescents from the Dutch general population, aged 10-12 years at T1 and 12-14 years at T2. From the 1327 parent reports, 207 showed a change that exceeded the cut-off for inclusion in the analyses. From the 1414 self-reports, 476 exceeded the cut-off.
Results:
Apart from increase, decrease in depression was common. Pubertal progress was inversely related to the parent reports of boys' depression only.
Conclusion:
Self-perceptions of depressive symptoms change independently from pubertal progress, whereas changes observable to parents are inversely related to it in boys.
Limitations:
Progress was not measured across the whole pubertal development.
Clinical Relevance:
One can expect parents to observe a decrease in boys' depression in the period when most pubertal progress is made. More attention should be paid to decreases in depressive symptomatology.