The Effects Of Early Trauma And Recent Negative Life Events On Depressive Symptoms In Adolescents

Objective: To investigate the present situation of depressive symptoms,early trauma and recent negative life events in adolescents,and to explore the effects of early trauma and recent negative life events on ado lescent depressive symptoms,so as to provide reference for prevention and intervention of depressive symptoms in adolescents.Methods: Totally 6046 students were selected from five primary schools and six middle schools in Wuhan C ity using cluster sampling method.The demographic characteristics questionnaire,C hildhood Trauma Questionnaire(CTQ),Adolescent Self-rating Life Events C hecklist(ASLEC),and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(C ES-D)were used to assess the past and present situations of students.C hi-square test,logistic regression,and hierarchical linear regression were used to analyze adolescent depressive symptoms,early trauma,recent negative life events and the relationship among them.Results: A total of 6122 students participated in the survey,and finally 6046 valid questionnaires were retrieved.The effective rate of the questionnaire was 98.8%.There are 3,184 boys and 2,864 girls;2,782 primary school students and 3,264 junior high school students;the age range is 9 to 17 years old.1.Depressive symptoms: The incidence of depressive symptoms is 15.0% among students.O lder age,family history of depression,low family income,and disharmony between parents were related to increased risk of adolescent depressive symptoms(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in incidence of depressive symptoms between the male and female depress ive symptoms,and among the parents of different educational levels(P>0.05).2.Early trauma and the relationship between early trauma and depressive symptoms: The incidence of early trauma is 33.8% among students.And the incidences of early neglect is higher than early abuse.Each type of early trauma increased the risk of depressive symptoms and there was dose-response relationship between variety of early trauma and depressive symptoms.3.Recent negative life events and the relationship between recent negative life events and depressive symptoms: The incidence of recent negative life events is 92.8% among students.The number of recent negative life events,the total proximal perceived stress and the sensitivity to negative life events were positive correlation with the probability of depressive symptoms.4.The effects of early trauma and recent negative life events on adolescent depressive symptoms:There was interaction between early trauma and recent negative life events(the number of recent negative life events/ the total proximal perceived stress/ the sensitivity to negative life events)on depressive symptoms in adolescents.Conclusions: The prevalence of depression symptoms,early trauma and recent negative life events were on high level in adolescents.Early trauma increased the risk of depressive symptoms in adolescents and there was dose-response relationship between early trauma and depressive symptoms.The number of recent negative life events,recent stress and recent stress sensitivity are positively predicting adolescent depressive symptoms.Moreover,there is an interaction between early trauma and recent negative life events on the effects of depressive symptoms in adolescents.Therefore,avoiding or reducing the incidence of early trauma,recent negative life events,and improving adolescents' ability to respond to negative life events can help reduce the risk of depression.