Depressive symptoms from adolescence to emerging adulthood: Consistent measurement?

What is it about?

Adolescence to emerging adulthood is a critical period for the onset of depressive symptoms. To understand depressive symptoms during this sensitive developmental phase, researchers use questionnaires such as the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ). In the SMFQ, adolescents and emerging adults are asked thirteen questions about their depressive symptoms in the last two weeks. For instance, they are asked whether they felt miserable or did not enjoy anything during the last two weeks. They have the response options “not true” (0), “sometimes” (1) and “true” (2) when replying to the questions. This way, the SMFQ provides knowledge about depression severity. Scales like the SMFQ are used to assess people’s feelings over time. However, it may be that younger adolescents respond differently to certain questions compared to emerging adults because they may interpret symptoms differently depending on their age or sex. Such differences in the interpretation of symptoms could provide false estimates of depression severity. This can be statistically tested with an approach called measurement invariance analysis. Accordingly, we tested measurement invariance over time in 7364 young people from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) who were repeatedly assessed from ages 11 to 26. Overall, our analyses indicated that the SMFQ can provide an unbiased assessment of depressive symptoms over time from adolescence into emerging adulthood. However, we note that some caution is necessary when assessing depressive symptoms from 11 to 13 years of age.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

There is a critical need to thoroughly understand trajectories of depressive symptoms and the emergence of gender differences in different developmental phases. This knowledge will help remedy and counteract depressive symptoms in young people by informing prevention efforts, intervention studies, and mental health policies. To study depressive symptoms during complex developmental phases, researchers rely on validated questionnaires such as the SMFQ to capture the construct of depression. Demonstrating consistent measurement (i.e., measurement invariance) of the SMFQ is therefore of great relevance because knowledge generated from this measure provides important information on depressive symptoms throughout adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Perspectives