Publication year
2013
Citation Title
Emotional maltreatment, peer victimization, and depressive versus anxiety symptoms during adolescence: Hopelessness as a mediator.
Journal Name
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology
Journal Volume
42
Issue Number
3
Page Numbers
332-347
DOI
1080/15374416.2013.777916
Summary
Emotional abuse and neglect and peer victimization can have lasting negative consequences for youth. The effects of emotional abuse and neglect and peer victimization on adolescents' later anxiety and depression symptoms was assessed among 225 adolescents at baseline (Time 1), 9-month follow-up (Time 2), and 18-month follow-up (Time 3). Emotional abuse predicted increases in adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms, while peer victimization predicted greater depression symptoms.
Key Findings
Both emotional abuse and peer victimization predicted increases in depressive symptoms over time.
Emotional abuse predicted increases in symptoms of anxiety (including social and physical anxiety) over time.
Emotional neglect did not predict changes in depressive or anxiety symptoms.
Hopelessness was a mediator between emotional abuse and depressive and social anxiety symptoms, with emotional abuse predicting hopelessness, which in turn predicted later depressive and social anxiety symptoms.
Implications for Military Professionals
Facilitate support groups for youth experiencing emotional abuse or peer victimization
Help develop school-based student health curricula about how to prevent and stop bullying
Implications for Program Leaders
Offer classes to military parents and families about how to recognize and combat bullying
Collaborate with schools to help identify military children who experience bullying in school and refer them to resources (e.g., mental health care, peer support groups)
Implications for Policy Makers
Recommend that military youth be regularly screened for a range of mental health and broader wellness concerns and that families are provided tailored, accessible, affordable referral resources
Recommend education for professionals working with military families on how to recognize and intervene with emotional maltreatment and victimization
Methods
As part of a larger longitudinal study on adolescent cognition and emotion, White and Black students (12-13 years of age) and their mothers or female caregivers, were recruited from Philadelphia public and private schools through newspaper ads and school mailings.
At baseline, mothers completed questionnaires about life stressors, and at both baseline (Time 1) and 19-month follow-up (Time 3), adolescents completed depression and anxiety questionnaires.
At a nine-month follow-up (Time 2), adolescents completed questionnaires about emotional abuse and neglect, relationally-oriented peer victimization, and hopelessness.
The associations between depression and anxiety symptoms and emotional abuse, emotional neglect, peer victimization, and hopelessness were evaluated over time.
Participants
Participants included 225 adolescent students from Philadelphia (59% female) with an average age of 12.84 years (SD = 0.60).
Participants were 55% Black, with the rest of participants being either White or Multiracial (at least partially Black or White).
Families were primarily low-income, with 45% of students qualifying for free lunch.
Limitations
All measures were self-report and could be subject to reporter bias.
It is unclear whether the associations between peer victimization or emotional abuse or neglect and anxiety and depression symptoms would extend to clinical levels of anxiety and depression disorders.
Although the average follow-up times were each 9 months apart, students' individual follow-up intervals varied.
Avenues for Future Research
Examine the effects of emotional maltreatment and victimization using multiple informants and formal assessments of anxiety and depression
Explore the associations between other types of maltreatment or victimization (e.g., relational, reputational) on mental health symptoms
Conduct research with long-term follow-up assessments to understand how emotional maltreatment and victimization in adolescence may continue to have an impact into adulthood
Focus
Civilian
Population Focus
Abstract
Extensive comorbidity between depression and anxiety has driven research to identify unique and shared risk factors. This study prospectively examined the specificity of three interpersonal stressors (emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and relationally oriented peer victimization) as predictors of depressive versus anxiety symptoms in a racially diverse community sample of adolescents. We expanded on past research by examining hopelessness as a mediator of the relationships between these interpersonal stressors and symptoms. Participants included 225 adolescents (55% African American; 59% female; M age = 12.84 years) who completed measures at baseline (Time 1) and two follow-up assessments (Times 2 and 3). Symptoms of depression and anxiety (social, physical, total) were assessed at Time 1 and Time 3, whereas intervening emotional maltreatment, peer victimization, and hopelessness were assessed at Time 2. Hierarchical linear regressions indicated that emotional abuse was a nonspecific predictor of increases in both depressive symptoms and symptoms of social, physical, and total anxiety, whereas relationally oriented peer victimization predicted depressive symptoms specifically. Emotional neglect did not predict increases in depressive or anxiety symptoms. In addition, hopelessness mediated the relationships between emotional abuse and increases in symptoms of depression and social anxiety. These findings suggest that emotional abuse and relationally oriented peer victimization are interpersonal stressors that are relevant to the development of internalizing symptoms in adolescence and that hopelessness may be one mechanism through which emotional abuse contributes to an increased risk of depression and social anxiety.
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