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In the present work, we evaluated reciprocal, within-dyads associations between parents’ and adolescents’ depressive symptoms across two independent samples ( N = 327 and N = 435 dyads; approximately 85% biological mothers) assessed every 3 months for 2 years (Study 1) to 3 years (Study 2). Results of random intercept cross-lagged panel models converged to support positive contemporaneous patterns of cofluctuation in parental and adolescent depression such that within-persons deviations in parental depression were associated with same-direction within-persons deviations in adolescent depression at the same time point. In contrast, within-persons fluctuations in parental depression did not prospectively predict within-persons fluctuations in adolescent depression, or vice versa, across the follow-up period. Results held across boys and girls, as well as dyads with and without a parental history of depressive disorder. Overall, findings advance knowledge by demonstrating that after accounting for between-persons/dyads variance, parental and adolescent depression demonstrate contemporaneous cofluctuations but do not demonstrate within-dyads reciprocity over time.

Introduction: Individual differences in beliefs about the controllability of emotions are associated with a range of psychosocial outcomes, including depressive symptoms. Less is known, however, about factors contributing to individual differences in these beliefs. The current study examined prospective associations between negative emotionality (NE) and implicit beliefs about emotions, as well as the indirect effect of NE on depressive symptoms through implicit beliefs about emotions. Methods: In a sample of children and adolescents, NE was assessed at baseline, implicit beliefs about emotions were assessed 18 months later, and depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline and 36 months later. Results: NE was associated with implicit beliefs about emotions, and an indirect effect of NE on depressive symptoms through implicit beliefs about emotions was observed. Discussion: NE represents a salient dispositional vulnerability factor contributing to individual differences in implicit beliefs about emotions, with implications for the development of depressive symptoms in youth.

Concerns about social status are ubiquitous during adolescence, with information about social status often conveyed in text formats. Depressed adolescents may show alterations in the functioning of neural systems supporting processing of social status information. We examined whether depressed youth exhibited altered neural activation to social status words in temporal and prefrontal cortical regions thought to be involved in social cognitive processing, and whether this response was associated with development. Forty-nine adolescents (ages 10-18; 35 female), including 20 with major depressive disorder and 29 controls, were scanned while identifying the valence of words that connoted positive and negative social status. Results indicated that depressed youth showed reduced late activation to social status (vs neutral) words in the superior temporal cortex (STC) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC); whereas healthy youth did not show any significant differences between word types. Depressed youth also showed reduced late activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and fusiform gyrus to negative (vs positive) social status words; whereas healthy youth showed the opposite pattern. Finally, age was positively associated with MPFC activation to social status words. Findings suggest that hypoactivation in the “social cognitive brain network” might be implicated in altered interpersonal functioning in adolescent depression.

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