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The Dynamics of Life Stressors and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence: A Test of Six Theoretical Models
Author(s) -
Clements Margaret,
Aber J. Lawrence,
Seidman Edward
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01182.x
Subject(s) - psychology , stressor , structural equation modeling , clinical psychology , cognition , psychosocial , recall , developmental psychology , association (psychology) , mood , psychiatry , psychotherapist , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics
Structural equation modeling was used to compare 6 competing theoretically based psychosocial models of the longitudinal association between life stressors and depressive symptoms in a sample of early adolescents ( N = 907; 40% Hispanic, 32% Black, and 19% White; mean age at Time 1 = 11.4 years). Only two models fit the data, both of which included paths modeling the effect of depressive symptoms on stressors recall: The mood‐congruent cognitive bias model included only depressive symptoms to life stressors paths (DS→S), whereas the fully transactional model included paths representing both the DS→S and stressors to depressive symptoms (S→DS) effects. Social causation models and the stress generation model did not fit the data. Findings demonstrate the importance of accounting for mood‐congruent cognitive bias in stressors–depressive symptoms investigations.