The latent structure of depression symptoms and suicidal thoughts in Brazilian youths

Many studies have investigated the existence of discrete groups comprising the clinical concept of depression. Nevertheless, identifying true latent depression groups might require the inclusion of indicators of severe manifestations of depression, such as suicidal thoughts, in the analysis. Another issue is that relatively few studies have addressed the latent structure of depression in children and adolescents from Latin American cultures.

In the present study, we combined latent profile and taxometric analysis to investigate the latent structure underlying depression symptoms (negative emotionality and low positive emotionality indicators) and suicidal thoughts in four aggregated Brazilian youth samples (total N = 2587; mean age = 12.86 years; SD = 2.60; 50.8% females).

Latent profile analysis indicated five classes that clearly represented distinct levels on a continuum of depression. However, taxometric results were ambiguous with regard to highlighting depression as a purely dimensional or categorical latent entity (mean CCFI = 0.497).

The use of few indicators from a single instrument, the potential heterogeneity in the clinical group, and the non-random nature of the samples included in the study.

The mixed findings support the existence of a dimension of depression, as well as latent classes of individuals. Factor mixture models are discussed as a strategy for further exploring the nature of depression among young people.