Emotional Reactivity to Negative Adult and Peer Events and the Maintenance of Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: a Daily Diary Design

• Published in: Journal of abnormal child psychology Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 471 - 481
• Main Authors: Herres, Joanna, Ewing, E. Stephanie Krauthamer, Kobak, Roger
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - psychology; Adolescent girls; Adolescents; African Americans; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child and School Psychology; Depression - psychology; Disadvantaged adolescents; Emotional Response; Emotions; Emotions - physiology; Female; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Mental depression; Models, Psychological; Negative emotions; Negative events; Neurosciences; Peer Group; Personal relationships; Positive emotions; Psychology; Public Health; Reactivity; Sex Factors; Social psychology; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Teachers; Teenagers; United States > US; Emotional reactivity; Interpersonal events; Adolescent depression; Daily diary
• ISSN: 0091-0627; 2730-7166; 1573-2835; 2730-7174
• DOI: 10.1007/s10802-015-0043-6

Emotional reactivity to negative interpersonal events has been consistently linked with depressive symptoms in studies with adults. However, little is known about the role that emotional reactivity plays in the maintenance of depressive symptoms during adolescence. A structured diary, administered to 132 economically disadvantaged adolescents (53 % female, 76 % African American) at age 14, measured adolescent daily reports of negative events involving parents, teachers, and peers and ratings of negative and positive affect. We examined the relationship between emotional reactivity (changes in negative and positive affect that correspond with negative events) and the maintenance of depressive symptoms between ages 13 and 15. We also tested unique effects of different types of emotional reactivity, depending on the type of interpersonal event. Results provided support for the emotional reactivity model for negative teacher events: heightened reactivity to negative teacher events was related to the maintenance of depressive symptoms. Findings suggest that adolescents’ emotional reactivity to teachers has important implications for the continuity of depressive symptoms during early adolescence for disadvantaged youth.