Internal medicine

Pathology

Sociology

Latent growth modeling

Young adult

Depressive symptoms

Mathematics

Clinical psychology

Statistics

Psychiatry

Demography

Developmental psychology

Cognition

Psychology

Multivariate statistics

Life course approach

Univariate

Longitudinal study

Multivariate analysis

Latent class model

Medicine

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Heterogeneity in the longitudinal course of depressive symptoms was studied through the use of general growth mixture modeling for young men in the Oregon Youth Study (N=206), who ranged in age from 15 to 24 years. Four trajectory classes were identified: the very-low, the moderate-decreasing, the high-decreasing, and the high-persistent classes. The 3 lowest classes differed primarily quantitatively with the initial level or mean level across time being the major determinant of class differences, whereas the high-persistent class appeared qualitatively different in terms of long-term developmental trends and variation. Findings from univariate and multivariate analyses revealed specific effects of childhood, parental, contextual, and individual risk factors on the class membership as well as on the growth within each trajectory class.

The Course of Depressive Symptoms in Men From Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Identifying Latent Trajectories and Early Predictors.