Early family adversity, youth depressive symptom trajectories, and young adult socioeconomic attainment: A latent trajectory class analysis

Using prospective data from 485 adolescents over a 10-year period, this chapter applies group-based latent class trajectory analysis in the area of life course stress. This analysis included several stages. First, group-based trajectory class analyses identified heterogeneous developmental patterns of depressive symptoms for groups of youth. Depressive symptom trajectories for the majority of youth followed normative patterns. However, depressive symptom trajectories for other youth showed two non-normative patterns characterized by recovery from extremely high symptom levels in adolescence and continued escalation of depressive symptoms throughout adolescence and young adulthood. Second, the analysis examined antecedents and consequences of depressive symptom trajectories during adolescence and early adulthood. The findings showed that having highly educated parents protects youth from non-normative development characterized by continued symptom escalation, whereas experiences with negative family life events and parental rejection increase the vulnerability of youth falling into a non-normative group characterized by extremely high initial levels of depressive symptoms that decline over time. Finally, linking identified group membership to subsequent young adult outcomes, the analysis provided information about the continuity of group-based processes into young adulthood. Young adult social status attainments of youth in escalating and recovering groups were lower than those in the normative group. Identification of members of these heterogeneous groups and antecedents, concurrent processes, and consequences linked to group membership provide a potentially useful prognostic tool for early intervention efforts and policy formation.