Relationships between social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and antisocial behaviors: evidence from a prospective study of adolescent boys

Latent stability and change in subgroups of social anxiety and depressive symptoms in adolescence: A latent profile and transitional analysis

BACKGROUND

Social anxiety and depressive symptoms increase markedly during adolescence. Most research examining the emergence of these symptoms has used a variable-centered approach providing little information about how these symptoms group together in individuals over time.

METHOD

A person-centered approach utilizing latent profile and latent transitional analyses was applied to a large adolescent sample (N = 2742, M_age=13.65; SD=0.63; 47.9% girls). Subgroups differing in their expressions of social anxiety and depressive symptoms at each of four annual time points were identified and then change in membership of these groups was evaluated.

RESULTS

Four subgroups were identified: 1. Low Distress, 2. Socially Anxious, 3. Dysphoric, and 4. Comorbid. The low distress group was the largest and most stable, followed by the socially anxious group, who most commonly transitioned into the comorbid group. In contrast, the dysphoric group were most likely to remit and move to the low distress group. The comorbid group was the smallest and least stable, although once in this group, three quarters of adolescents remained in this group over time.

CONCLUSION

Early intervention is particularly imperative for socially anxious adolescents with or without comorbid depressive symptoms as they are the least likely to improve across the adolescent years.

Progression of externalizing disorders into anxiety disorders: Longitudinal transitions in the first three decades of life

BACKGROUND

There is a notable comorbidity between externalizing disorders and anxiety disorders, which may be explained by the co-occurrence of two prevalent early-onset disorders, by shared vulnerability and risk factors, or as evidence that one disorder group might be causally related to the other.

AIM

To investigate the longitudinal trajectories of externalizing disorders, their interplay with anxiety disorders, and putative predictors for symptom progression in youth.

METHODS

1053 adolescents (14-17 years) from the general population were assessed at baseline and prospectively at 2, 4, and 10-year follow-up using a standardized interview of mental disorders (DIA-X/M-CIDI) to assess "early" (oppositional-defiant disorder, conduct disorder, ADHD) and "late" (antisocial behavior, substance use disorders) externalizing disorders as well as anxiety disorders. Longitudinal associations and predictors for symptom progression were examined using Kaplan-Meier-analyses.

RESULTS

Lifetime prevalence of early externalizing disorders were 9.1% and 6.4% among those with and without any anxiety disorder. A late externalizing disorder was reported by 50.3% of those with an early externalizing disorder and in 26.6% of those with any anxiety disorder. Both early (HR: 1.5, 95%CI: 1.0-2.3) and late externalizing disorders (HR: 2.1, 95%CI: 1.7-2.6) were associated with incident anxiety disorders. Higher parental rejection, lower volitional inhibition, and higher volitional avoidance predicted incident anxiety disorders among those with early externalizing disorders.

DISCUSSION

Early externalizing disorders likely follow a homotypic continuity (to late externalizing disorders) and/or a heterotypic continuity to anxiety disorders, and thus appear as a useful target for prevention and early intervention.

Global Mental Health and Adolescent Anxiety: Kin, Care and Struggle in New Mexico

While recent developments within the field of global mental health have illuminated the reality of serious mental health difficulties worldwide, particularly in low-income settings, research that focuses on children and adolescents remains underdeveloped. This is especially the case with respect to ethnographic studies of lived experience of adolescents diagnosed with serious mental health conditions. Drawing from an interdisciplinary study of adolescents in New Mexico who were afflicted with a broad range of disorders according to contemporary research diagnostic criteria, this article focuses on anxiety-related conditions with respect to subjective experience and social-ecological contexts of living with such conditions. We offer preliminary observations regarding the value of linking ethnographic and research diagnostic data to address questions of resilience, endurance, capacity and struggle. These observations are intended as the basis for the formulation of more precise hypotheses about adolescent anxiety, kin, and care under conditions of structural violence marked by psychological, residential, and intergenerational adversity.

Examining the relation between adolescent social anxiety, adolescent delinquency (abstention), and emerging adulthood relationship quality

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Social anxiety symptoms and delinquency are two prevalent manifestations of problem behavior during adolescence and both are related to negative interpersonal relationships in adolescence and emerging adulthood. This study examined the relation between social anxiety and delinquency in adolescence and the interplay between adolescent social anxiety and delinquency on perceived relationship quality in emerging adulthood.

DESIGN AND METHODS

In a 10-year long prospective study (T1, n = 923; T2, n = 727; Mage T1 = 12; 49% female), we examined competing hypotheses using regression analyses: the protective perspective, which suggests social anxiety protects against delinquency; and the co-occurring perspective, which suggests social anxiety and delinquency co-occur leading to increased negative interpersonal outcomes.

RESULTS

In adolescence, the relation between social anxiety and delinquency was consistent with the protective perspective. In emerging adulthood, consistent with the co-occurring perspective, ever-delinquents (but not delinquency abstainers) with higher social anxiety reported less perceived best friend, mother, and father support compared to delinquents with lower social anxiety. There was no interaction between anxiety and delinquency in predicting perceived conflict.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the importance of examining the relation between social anxiety and delinquency with regards to different interpersonal outcomes.

Pathways to anxiety-depression comorbidity: A longitudinal examination of childhood anxiety disorders

BACKGROUND

Anxiety disorders are prevalent in youth and associated with later depressive disorders. A recent model posits three distinct anxiety-depression pathways. Pathway 1 represents youth with a diathesis to anxiety that increases risk for depressive disorders; Pathway 2 describes youth with a shared anxiety-depression diathesis; and Pathway 3 consists of youth with a diathesis for depression who develop anxiety as a consequence of depression impairment. This is the first partial test of this model following cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for child anxiety.

METHOD

The present study included individuals (N = 66; M age = 27.23 years, SD = 3.54) treated with CBT for childhood anxiety disorders 7-19 years (M = 16.24; SD = 3.56) earlier. Information regarding anxiety (i.e., social phobia (SoP), separation anxiety disorder (SAD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)) and mood disorders (i.e., major depressive disorder (MDD) and dysthymic disorders) was obtained at pretreatment, posttreatment, and one or more follow-up intervals via interviews and self-reports.

RESULTS

Evidence of pathways from SoP, SAD, and GAD to later depressive disorders was not observed. Treatment responders evidenced reduced GAD and SoP over time, although SoP was observed to have a more chronic and enduring pattern.

CONCLUSIONS

Evidence for typically observed pathways from childhood anxiety disorders was not observed. Future research should prospectively examine if CBT treatment response disrupts commonly observed pathways.

Comorbidity of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents: 20 years after

Brady and Kendall (1992) concluded that although anxiety and depression in youths are meaningfully linked, there are important distinctions, and additional research is needed. Since then, studies of anxiety-depression comorbidity in youths have increased exponentially. Following a discussion of comorbidity, we review existing conceptual models and propose a multiple pathways model to anxiety-depression comorbidity. Pathway 1 describes youths with a diathesis for anxiety, with subsequent comorbid depression resulting from anxiety-related impairment. Pathway 2 refers to youths with a shared diathesis for anxiety and depression, who may experience both disorders simultaneously. Pathway 3 describes youths with a diathesis for depression, with subsequent comorbid anxiety resulting from depression-related impairment. Additionally, shared and stratified risk factors contribute to the development of the comorbid disorder, either by interacting with disorder-related impairment or by predicting the simultaneous development of the disorders. Our review addresses descriptive and developmental factors, gender differences, suicidality, assessments, and treatment-outcome research as they relate to comorbid anxiety and depression and to our proposed pathways. Research since 1992 indicates that comorbidity varies depending on the specific anxiety disorder, with Pathway 1 describing youths with either social phobia or separation anxiety disorder and subsequent depression, Pathway 2 applying to youths with coprimary generalized anxiety disorder and depression, and Pathway 3 including depressed youths with subsequent social phobia. The need to test the proposed multiple pathways model and to examine (a) developmental change and (b) specific anxiety disorders is highlighted.

Influences between Online–Exclusive, Conjoint and Offline–Exclusive Friendship Networks: The Moderating Role of Shyness

Prior research has indicated that shy adolescents are more motivated to form friendships online than to form friendships offline. Little is known about whether having friendships found exclusively online may impact self–esteem and forming offline friendships for these adolescents. This study therefore aimed to provide insight into the moderating role of shyness in the longitudinal interplay between friendships in online and offline contexts in early adolescence. Adolescents and their friends (193 girls, 196 boys; Mage = 13.29) were followed with three consecutive measurements with intervals of eight months. Results showed that particularly for shy adolescents, having friends exclusively online predicted increases in self–esteem. Self–esteem, in turn, was found to predict forming more friendships found both offline and online and forming more friendships found exclusively offline. Thus, findings supported the social compensation perspective that shy adolescents may benefit from having friends exclusively online, as these friendships may increase self–esteem, thereby facilitating the formation of friendships found partially and completely offline. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Muster, Entwicklungstypen und Persönlichkeit

Studien zu Sozialisationswirkungen sportlicher Aktivitäten auf Facetten der Persönlichkeit (z. B. Selbstkonzept) haben sich bislang in der Regel auf die Analyse isolierter Effekte des Sports konzentriert, ohne weitere Entwicklungskontexte (wie z. B. die Familie) angemessen zu berücksichtigen. Da hierin eine wesentliche Ursache für die unbefriedigende Befundlage gesehen wird, bemüht sich der Beitrag darum, die Rolle des Sports für das Selbstkonzept im komplexen Wirkungsgeflecht verschiedener Entwicklungskontexte herauszuarbeiten. 121 Heranwachsende wurden in einer personorientierten Längsschnittsstudie untersucht und die Daten mit der LICUR-Methode (z. B. Bergman, Magnusson & El-Khouri, 2003 ) ausgewertet. Die dabei identifizierten Subgruppen unterscheiden sich in allen untersuchten Facetten des Selbstkonzepts bedeutsam, zeigen sowohl zeitstabile als auch dynamische Werteprofile ihrer Entwicklungsfaktoren und folgen überzufällig häufig einzelnen Entwicklungswegen. Aus diesen Befunden werden Konsequenzen für eine ganzheitliche und funktionale Selbstkonzeptförderung durch Sport abgeleitet.

Investigating a socially anxious-impulsive subgroup of adolescents: a prospective community study

Previous research has identified a subgroup of socially anxious adults who are both anxious and impulsive. To date, however, this subgroup has not been identified in adolescence. Therefore, in this study we aimed to identify this subgroup in a sample of adolescents. In addition, we hypothesized that this subgroup would be higher on problem behaviors, and that these processes would be moderated by gender. We used longitudinal data from 714 adolescents who were in the 7th and 8th grades at Time 1. They were followed annually for three years. Cluster analyses identified an anxious-inhibited subgroup as well as an anxious-impulsive subgroup in early adolescence (Time 1). The socially anxious-impulsive adolescent boys were generally higher on both intoxication frequency and delinquency compared with all other adolescents in all clusters at each time point. Findings suggest that social anxiety subgroups may differ on problem behavior, and that early detection of an anxious-impulsive subgroup may be important to prevent maladjustment, especially for adolescent boys.

Social anxiety as a basis for friendship selection and socialization in adolescents' social networks

Socially anxious children and adolescents have previously been found to have friends with similarly socially anxious, withdrawn behavioral characteristics. How peers might socialize social anxiety over time has, however, not been thoroughly investigated. We examined this in a sample of 834 youths (339 girls and 495 boys; M=14.29), followed for 3 years. We used the social network analysis software SIENA to analyze the data. The results showed that youths who were socially anxious were less popular and chose fewer friends in the network. They also tended to choose friends who were socially anxious, and over time they influenced each other into becoming more socially anxious--over and above other effects. Finally, girls' social anxiety was more influenced than boys' by their friends' social anxiety levels. The results showed the significance of looking at socially anxious youths' friendships over time and embedded in social networks.

Evaluation of the psychometric properties of a modified version of the Social Phobia Screening Questionnaire for use in adolescents

BACKGROUND

Social phobia (social anxiety disorder - SAD) is a rather common but often undetected and undertreated psychiatric condition in youths. Screening of SAD in young individuals in community samples is thus important in preventing negative outcomes. The present study is the first report on the psychometric properties of the Social Phobia Screening Questionnaire for Children and adolescents (SPSQ-C).

METHODS

The SPSQ-C was administered to a community sample of high-school students. Test-retest reliability over three weeks was evaluated (n = 127) and internal consistency was calculated for items measuring level of fear in eight social situations. To measure concurrent validity, subjects who reported SAD on at least one occasion and randomly selected non-cases were blindly interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-I disorders (SCID-I), as gold standard (n = 51).

RESULTS

A moderate test-retest reliability, r = .60 (P < .01), and a satisfactory alpha coefficient of .78 was found. Values of sensitivity and specificity were 71% and 86% respectively, and area under the curve (AUC) was .79. Positive likelihood ratio (LR+) showed that a positive screening result was five times more likely to be correct than to reflect a non-case. Negative likelihood ratio (LR -) was .34. In addition, positive predictive value was 45% and negative predictive value was 95%. The prevalence of self-reported SAD was found to be 7.2% at the first assessment.

CONCLUSION

The SPSQ-C is a short and psychometrically sound questionnaire for screening of SAD in adolescents, with the advantage of being based on the DSM-IV criteria.