The interconnected development of depressive symptoms and school functioning from mid-adolescence to early adulthood

Olivier, Morin, Leo & Salmela-Aro (2022) published “The Interconnected Development of Depressive Symptoms and School Functioning from Mid-adolescence to Early Adulthood: A piecewise growth mixture analysis” in Journal of Educational Psychology. 

This study seeks to identify profiles of depressive symptoms trajectories among a sample of 2,696 Finnish students (56.8% female), followed from 13–14 to 18–19 years old. Piecewise growth mixture analyses identified 5 trajectories: Low Stabilizing (6.20%), Mild Increasing (47.90%), Moderate Stabilizing (36.82%), Low Increasing (3.62%), and High Stable (5.46%). Relative to boys, girls experienced more problematic depressive symptoms trajectories. The study also assesses whether achievement goals growth predicts depression trajectories, and whether school burnout and engagement growth trajectories can be positioned as outcomes of depression trajectories. Adopting mastery-intrinsic and mastery-extrinsic goals was associated with a lower risk of feeling depressed, whereas adhering to performance-approach or performance-avoidance goals was associated with a higher risk of corresponding to a problematic trajectory-profile. School burnout and engagement trajectories closely matched youth depressive symptoms trajectory-profiles, except for youth corresponding to a High Stable profile who experienced an increase in their school engagement. 

Mastery goals are intrapersonal, focused on beating one’s own previous performance levels whereas performance goals are externally defined (e.g., earning an A). It is interesting that mastery-intrinsic and mastery-extrinsic goals are both associated with lower risk of depression while performance goals (whether approach or avoidance) are associated with depression and school burnout. This provides new evidence for the importance of mastery goals.

I find it interesting that teens with high stable depression symptoms increase their student engagement while other teens with depression experience more school burnout and lack of engagement. The high stable teens are a small percentage of the sample but I wonder if teens with chronic high depression engage in school, seeing it as a vehicle to getting on with their lives as adults, acknowledging that, while they may be depressed, life goes on and having post-high school goals is a source of hope.