Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Slavich, George M.
• Giletta, Matteo
• Helms, Sarah W.
• Hastings, Paul D.
• Rudolph, Karen D.
• Nock, Matthew K.
• Prinstein, Mitchell J.

Titel

Interpersonal life stress, inflammation, and depression in adolescence: Testing Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression

Ist Teil von

• Depression and anxiety, 2020-02, Vol.37 (2), p.179-193

Ort / Verlag

United States: Hindawi Limited

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Background Depression rates increase markedly for girls across the adolescent transition, but the social‐environmental and biological processes underlying this phenomenon remain unclear. To address this issue, we tested a key hypothesis from Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression, which posits that individuals who mount stronger inflammatory responses to social stress should exhibit greater increases in depressive symptoms following interpersonal life stress exposure than those who mount weaker inflammatory responses to such stress. Method Participants were 116 adolescent girls (Mage = 14.71) at risk for psychopathology, defined as having a history of mental health concerns (e.g., psychiatric treatment, significant symptoms) over the past 2 years. At baseline, we characterized their inflammatory reactivity to social stress by quantifying their salivary proinflammatory cytokine responses to a laboratory‐based social stressor. Then, 9 months later, we assessed the interpersonal and noninterpersonal stressful life events that they experienced over the prior 9 months using an interview‐based measure of life stress. Results As hypothesized, greater interpersonal life stress exposure was associated with significant increases in depression over time, but only for girls exhibiting stronger salivary tumor necrosis factor‐α and interleukin‐1β reactivity to social stress. In contrast, noninterpersonal stress exposure was unrelated to changes in depression longitudinally, both alone and when combined with youths' cytokine reactivity scores. Discussion These results are consistent with Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression and suggest that heightened inflammatory reactivity to social stress may increase adolescents' risk for depression. Consequently, it may be possible to reduce depression risk by modifying inflammatory responses to social stress.