| The purpose of the current study was to explore how gender and social relationship factors might influence trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Specifically, adolescent-parent communication with mothers and fathers, peer support, and sibling warmth and hostility were examined for girls and boys. Adolescents (N = 372; Mage = 16.09; SD = .69; 55% female) from the Mid-Atlantic United States completed surveys in the spring of 2007, 2008, and 2009 and were followed-up again in the fall of 2014 when they were emerging adults. Growth curve modeling results suggested that alone, gender did not predict differences in depressive symptom trajectories. However, gender interacted with several social relationship factors to predict levels of depressive symptoms at age 16 and changes in depressive symptoms across developmental periods. Communication with mothers and fathers and peer support negatively predicted intercepts for girls, whereas peer support negatively and sibling hostility positively predicted intercepts for boys. Further, adolescent-mother communication for girls and adolescent-father communication for boys predicted the downward curvature or decline in depressive symptoms into emerging adulthood. Sibling warmth and hostility for girls' and only sibling hostility for boys predicted less steep declines in depressive symptoms over time. Findings draw attention to the gendered experiences with depressive symptoms and the importance of social relationship factors in the lives of adolescents and emerging adults. Implications for intervention and prevention are discussed. |
