Using prospective, longitudinal data from 467 youth over a 13-year period (late adolescence and young adulthood), the present study investigates three research questions: (1) to what extent do elevations in depressed mood continue (homotypic continuity) from adolescence to young adulthood, (2) to what extent do young adults’ socioeconomic attainments and failures sustain the depressed mood from adolescence to young adulthood and (3) to what extent do young adults’ socioeconomic attainments or failures mediate the continuity and discontinuity of depressive symptoms across this period? The results from our structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses suggest that continuity of depressive symptoms from late adolescence to young adulthood is mediated in part by economic and work achievements or failures of young adults after controlling for adolescent conduct disorder/antisocial behavior, parents’ psychopathology and family adversity. Additionally, the results indicate that the continuity of depressed mood across the early life course is conditioned (stabilized or disrupted) by young adult socioeconomic achievements or failures.

Objectives The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of theoretically important dimensions of stability and change in economic hardship during early middle years on decade-long health problems of husbands and wives. Method The study used prospective data collected from 360 middle-aged husbands and wives during a 12-year period. The variables included self-reported economic hardship (22 items), mental and physical health, and physical impairment. Results The results supported the hypothesis that the dynamics of family economic hardship (in terms of stability and change) during the early middle years contribute to subsequent onset of health problems of middle-aged husbands and wives. These health problems, in turn, progress as an interrelated process through intra-health-domain continuities, cross-health-domain proliferations and dyadic associations as they pass through midlife. Discussion A better understanding these processes may aid in the formation and effective implementation of mental and physical health promotion programs for middle-aged husbands and wives.