How interpersonal factors impact the co-development of depression and non-suicidal self-injury in Chinese early adolescents

A Person-Centered Approach to Adolescent Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Predictors and Correlates in a Community Sample

“…Comparable NSSI subtypes appear in developmental research. In a 3-year longitudinal framework, three developmental trajectories in NSSI engagement were detected among middle school students: (1) stable low self-injury, (2) increase in initial low self-injury, and (3) decrease in initial moderate level of self-injury (Huang et al, 2021 ). In contrast, over a 1-year time frame, four NSSI subgroups were distinguished among adolescents: (1) no or marginal NSSI, (2) experimental (initially low and continuously decreasing NSSI level), (3) moderate decreasing (decreasing level from a moderate initial stage), and (4) high fluctuating (oscillating but persistently high NSSI level; Wang et al, 2017 ).…”

The role of family and peer factors in the development of early adolescent depressive symptoms: A latent class growth analysis

“…Among the four different trajectories, some classes, such as low stability, increasing, and decreasing to some extent exist stably. Previous studies have confirmed that most adolescents are characterized by low and stable depressive symptoms ( 5 , 6 , 9 – 11 ). Some studies suggest that depressive symptoms tend to increase slowly in early adolescence (usually 10–14 years old) ( 12 , 13 ), and such adolescent subgroups were also confirmed in the later LCGA studies ( 11 ).…”

“…The high detection rate and negative effects of depressive symptoms show the necessity to study their occurrence and development. Recently, an emerging body of research has paid more attention to heterogeneity in the development of adolescent depressive symptoms and the factors of family, peers, and other aspects (4)(5)(6). However, few studies have explored the trajectories of Chinese early adolescent depressive symptoms or considered the factors of family and peers comprehensively.…”

“…In terms of computation, it is easy to specify in Mplus and the zero constraints on the variance estimates allow for faster model convergence ( 8 ). Many researchers used LCGA to identify the heterogeneous trajectories of different classes of adolescent depressive symptoms ( 4 – 6 ). These results supported the trajectories of three or four classes.…”

“…A meta-analysis of 18 studies on the developmental trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms showed that a four-class trajectory was the best-fitting model: ongoing stable-low levels of depressive symptoms; very high depressive symptoms initially, but a steep decrease in symptoms over time; moderately high depressive symptoms initially, but symptoms decreasing over time; initially low levels of symptoms increasing over time ( 5 ). The latest study on Chinese early adolescents identified four trajectories of depressive symptoms: low stability, low growth, medium growth, and medium reduction ( 6 ). Among the four different trajectories, some classes, such as low stability, increasing, and decreasing to some extent exist stably.…”