Heterogeneity in Adolescent Depressive Symptom Trajectories: Implications for Young Adults' Risky Lifestyle

Objectives: The-first objective of this study was to empirically identify adolescent depressive symptoms trajectory among classes. The second objective was to investigate the implications of adolescent depressive symptom trajectories for their lifestyle factors in young adulthood. Methods: Data came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Addhealth). The analysis included the identification of depressive symptom trajectory groups using Latent Class Analyses. The identified trajectory groups were then compared with regard to risky lifestyle factors in young adulthood. Results: Youth in the chronically high, increasing, and decreasing depressive symptoms groups showed significantly higher prevalence rates in most risky lifestyle factors compared with the consistently low trajectory group, after controlling for lagged measures, adolescent delinquency, family characteristics, and race/ethnicity. The risky lifestyle factors included: having multiple sex partners, having been arrested/committed crime, being an excessive drinker, being a smoker, and being unmarried. Conclusions: The associations of adolescent depressive symptom trajectory groups with young adult risky lifestyle factors provide evidence for the psychosocial processes through which experiences with depressive symptoms influence young adult lifestyle. (C) 2010 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.