Poster #24 - Identifying longitudinal trends of anxiety and depression from toddlerhood to adolescence: relationships with environmental unpredictability.

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Motivation: Understanding the development of internalizing disorders longitudinally from toddlerhood to adolescence is important in learning how and when to intervene to reduce the prevalence of these disorders. Longitudinal studies examining internalizing disorders have found associations between preschool, childhood, and adolescent disorders, yet having an internalizing disorder at one time point does not necessarily predict one having the same disorder at another (Copeland et al., 2014). Existing literature, including both rodent and human studies, points to potential environmental influences that may be associated with the development of internalizing disorders, including living in environments that are unpredictable (Glynn & Baram, 2019; Glynn et al., 2019, Spadoni et al., 2022). These relationships exist even when controlling for other environmental factors (e.g., threat, poverty) (Glynn et al., 2019). Although depression and anxiety co-occur in response to environmental unpredictability (Glynn et al., 2019), there is little existing literature examining the relationship of that unpredictability to the comorbid development of internalizing disorders from preschool-age to adolescence. In the current study, we aim to examine the longitudinal relationship between preschool internalizing disorders and adolescent internalizing disorders, as moderated by the presence of environmental unpredictability.

Methods: Our sample includes two timepoints, collected at both preschool-age (n=917, ages=2-6) and adolescence (ages=14-21). Data collection at adolescence is still ongoing. At preschool-age, parents completed the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA; Egger & Angold, 2004), a diagnostic, structured clinical interview. At adolescence, adolescents and parents both completed the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA; Angold & Costello, 2000), and adolescents completed the Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood (QUIC; Glynn et al., 2019).

Hypotheses: We hypothesize that participants who met criteria for an internalizing disorder (i.e., depression, anxiety) at preschool-age will be more likely to have an internalizing disorder at adolescence, and higher levels of early unpredictability will increase the likelihood of longitudinal internalizing disorders. In addition, given the differential phenotypic profiles of depression and anxiety, we plan to examine the impact of early environmental unpredictability on the development of anxiety disorders, depression, and co-morbid anxiety and depression from preschool-age to adolescence.

Authors

• Sarah Maren Lempres, Duke Univeristy
  Presenting Author

• Adjoa T Ewool, Duke Univeristy

• William Copeland, University of Vermont

• Helen Egger, New York University Langone, Child Study Center

• Margaret A. Sheridan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Kimberly Carpenter, Duke Univeristy