Recorded presentation

Amanda L. Botticello, MPH, Richard G. Wight, PhD, and Carol S. Aneshensel, PhD. Department of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, 650 Charles E. Young Drive South, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, 310-267-2490, abottice@ucla.edu

Adolescence is an opportune time to investigate emergent gender differences in depressive symptomatology that persist through adulthood. This study examines the role of psychosocial protective factors that may modify this association while controlling for both individual- and school-level characteristics in a multilevel analysis. In particular, this analysis examines the impact of adolescents’ appraisal of their social environment on levels of depressive symptomatology in terms of both perceived social support and school cohesion. This study involves a secondary analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally representative school-based sample of adolescents interviewed in 1994-1995 (N=18,743). Depressive symptoms are measured by a 16-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (a = .85), social support is measured by a 7-item scale (a = .83), and school cohesion by three items assessing perceptions of connectedness to the school environment (a = .77). Multiple contingencies emerge between gender and the protective factors after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics such as age, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and family structure. Notably, social support moderates the association between gender and depression such that a greater benefit is conferred to females, suggesting that protective factors have varying consequences for male and female depressive symptomatology. Multilevel modeling yields significant variance in depressive symptoms between schools as well as main effects for aggregate perceived school cohesion while controlling for individual-level characteristics. The implications of between-school variation in symptoms and the impact of school-level risk factors for school-based mental health programs are discussed.

Learning Objectives: This analysis examines the effect of adolescent perceptions of their social environment on the gender differences in levels of depressive symptoms, while controlling for individual-level sociodemographic risk factors and school-level characteristics in a multilevel analysis. Session participants will be able to

• Describe how perceived social support moderates the relationship between gender and depressive symptoms.
• Articulate the importance of applying multilevel modeling to control for the effects of clustering in survey data.
• Discuss the implications of these findings regarding the importance of perceived social support and school-level differences for school-based interventions aimed at improving adolescent mental health.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Depression

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation