Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms and Associated Risk Factors From Late Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

This study addresses a research gap by identifying depressive symptom trajectories from adolescence to emerging adulthood in a German community sample using a person-centered approach.

The sample consisted of 3,682 adolescents and young adults (49.3% self-identified as female; age at T1: 15-19 years, M = 17.03, SD = 0.88) assessed in seven annual waves of the German Family Panel Pairfam. Latent class growth analysis was conducted with sociodemographic variables (gender, family status, parental education, economic deprivation, immigration background) and depressive symptoms, as assessed by the State-Trait Depression Scales.

Five depressive symptom trajectories were identified: stable low symptoms (34%), intermediate onset with decreasing symptom trajectory (8%), intermediate onset with slow increasing symptom trajectory (46%), intermediate onset with strong increase symptom trajectory (9%) and stable high symptoms (4%). Female gender and economic deprivation were predictors for all four classes associated with higher depressive symptoms with reference to the class with stable low depressive symptoms. Family status and immigration status lost their predictive impact for membership in depressive symptom trajectories when economic deprivation was included.

Interventions should target the underlying etiological factors of female gender and economic deprivation being risk factors for trajectories of depression, taking into consideration the complexity and interaction of biopsychosocial and political variables in the development of depressive disorders.