Do markers of daily affect mediate associations between interpretation bias and depressive symptoms? A longitudinal study of early adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: Early adolescence represents a time of heightened vulnerability for depression. Negative interpretation biases have been associated with increases in depressive symptoms during this developmental period; however, the mechanisms underlying the association between interpretation biases and depression remain poorly understood. Cognitive theories posit that interpretation biases give rise to depression by modulating daily affect, particularly in the context of stress. However, this has not yet been directly examined. The present study tested affect intensity and instability as mechanisms linking negative interpretation biases with change in adolescent depressive symptoms.

Methods: Ninety-four adolescents (aged 11-13 years; 51% boys) from Vancouver, Canada, were recruited for this longitudinal study. At baseline (Time 1), participants self-reported depressive symptoms and completed the Scrambled Sentences Task to assess negative interpretation biases. Next, participants completed daily diaries to assess positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) during a naturalistic stressor-the first 2 weeks of high school (Time 2). Finally, participants self-reported depressive symptoms 3 months later (Time 3). Path models were conducted to test whether PA and NA intensity and instability mediated prospective associations between negative interpretation biases and depressive symptom changes.

Results: Although NA intensity, NA instability, and PA instability predicted increases in depressive symptoms, only NA intensity mediated associations between interpretation biases and symptom changes. Neither PA intensity nor instability mediated these associations.

Conclusions: Elevated daily NA represents a specific mechanism through which stronger negative interpretation biases predict increases in depressive symptoms in adolescence.

Keywords: adolescence; affect dynamics; depression; interpretation bias; longitudinal.