Negative life events and their association with anxiety in adolescents with subthreshold depression

Abstract

Subthreshold depression (SD) is a serious mental health problem in adolescents, and there is increasing evidence that depressive symptoms frequently occur alongside anxiety. Despite this, the extent to which negative life events (NLEs) are an associated factor in adolescents with SD comorbid with anxiety remains unclear. A total of 371 Chinese adolescents with SD were recruited (204 girls, 166 boys and missing data), ranging in age from 14 to 19 years (M = 16.34, SD = 0.96). All subjects were rated on the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), the Individualism-Collectivism Scale (ICS), the Adolescent Life Events Questionnaire (ALEQ), and the Neuroticism Extraversion-Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI-N). The SD adolescents with higher anxiety had higher neuroticism scores, more self-reported negative life events and vertical individual orientation than those with low anxiety, and more of them were female than male (all p < 0.05). Further logistic regression indicated that gender, severity of depressive symptoms, vertical individualism orientation, and neuroticism were significantly associated with anxiety symptoms (p < 0.05). Our cross-sectional study could not explain the causal relationship between the severity of individual anxiety and risk factors in SD adolescents. Our results suggest that SD adolescents with high anxiety are more likely to experience NLEs than SD adolescents with low anxiety. Gender, severity of symptoms, vertical individualism orientation, and neuroticism are independent risk factors for anxiety in SD adolescents.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• anxiety
• negative life events
• subthreshold depression

Acknowledgments

The study was designed by XJ, LQ and SGFF. Data were collected by XJ. Results were analysed by SGFF and DX. The draft manuscript was written by DX. Later versions of the manuscript were seen and commented upon by all authors. We are indebted to all participants to attend our study.

Authors’ Contributions

The study was designed by XJ, LQ and SGFF. Data were collected by XJ. Results were analysed by SGFF and DX. The draft manuscript was written by DX. Later versions of the manuscript were seen and commented upon by all authors.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 32171069 and funded by the Open Research Fund of the CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science under Grant BEAA21046.