Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-26T18:20:21.046Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Adult mental health and social outcomes of adolescent girls with depression and conduct disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

Anna M. Bardone*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Terrie E. Moffitt
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Avshalom Caspi
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Nigel Dickson
Affiliation:
University of Otago Medical School
Phil A. Silva
Affiliation:
University of Otago Medical School
*
Anna M. Bardone, Department of Psychology, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706 (E-mail: abardone@students.wisc.edu).

Abstract

Follow-up studies of adolescent depression and conduct disorder have pointed to homotypic continuity, but less information exists about outcomes beyond mental disorders and about the extent to which adolescents with different disorders experience different versus similar difficulties during the transition to adulthood. We assessed the continuity of adolescent disorder by following girls in a complete birth cohort who at age 15 were depressed (n = 27), conduct disordered (n = 37), or without a mental health disorder (n = 341) into young adulthood (age 21) to identify their outcomes in three domains: mental health and illegal behavior, human capital, and relationship and family formation. We found homotypic continuity; in general, depressed girls became depressed women and conduct disordered girls developed antisocial personality disorder symptoms by age 21. Conduct disorder exclusively predicted at age 21: antisocial personality disorder, substance dependence, illegal behavior, dependence on multiple welfare sources, early home leaving, multiple cohabitation partners, and physical partner violence. Depression exclusively predicted depression at age 21. Examples of equifinality (where alternate pathways lead to the same outcome) surfaced, as both adolescent disorders predicted at age 21: anxiety disorder, multiple drug use, early school leaving, low school attainment, any cohabitation, pregnancy, and early child bearing.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed., revised). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Andrews, J. A., & Lewinsohn, P. M. (1992). Suicidal attempts among older adolescents: Prevalence and cooccurrence with psychiatric disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 31, 655662.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cairns, R. B., & Cairns, B. D. (1994). Lifelines and risks: Pathways of youth in our time. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caspi, A., Bern, D. J., & Elder, G. H. Jr., (1989). Continuities and consequences of interactional styles across the life course. Journal of Personality, 57, 375406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caspi, A., Lynam, D. R., Moffitt, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (1993). Unraveling girls' delinquency: Biological, dispositional, and contextual contributions to adolescent misbehavior. Developmental Psychology, 29, 1930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Thornton, A., Freedman, D., Amell, J., Harrington, H., Smeijers, J., & Silva, P. A. (1996). The life history calendar: A research and clinical method for collecting retrospective event-history data. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 6, 101114.3.3.CO;2-E>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. J. (1995). Perspectives in developmental psychopathology. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. J. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology, Volume 1: Theory and methods (pp. 320). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Rizley, R. (1981). Developmental perspectives on the etiology, intergenerational transmission, and sequelae of child maltreatment. New Directions for Child Development, 11, 3155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, P., & Cohen, J. (1984). The clinician's illusion. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 11781182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, P., Cohen, J., & Brook, J. (1993). An epidemiological study of disorders in late childhood and adolescence—II. Persistence of disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 34, 869877.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costello, E. J. (1989). Developments in child psychiatric epidemiology. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 836841.Google ScholarPubMed
Costello, A., Edelbrock, C., Kalas, R., Kessler, M., & Klaric, S. A. (1982). Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC). Contract No. RFP-DB-81–0027. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Mental Health.Google Scholar
Dickson, N., Paul, C., Herbison, P. (1993). Adolescents, sexual behavior and implications for an epidemic of HIV/AIDS among the young. Genitourinary Medicine, 69, 133140.Google ScholarPubMed
Downey, G., & Coyne, J. C. (1990). Children of depressed parents: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 5076.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elley, W. B., & Irving, J. C. (1972). A socio-economic index for New Zealand based on levels of education and income from the 1966 census. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 7, 153167.Google Scholar
Elliott, D. S., & Huizinga, D. (1989). Improving self-reported measures of delinquency. In Klein, M. W. (Ed.), Cross-national research in self-reported crime and delinquency (pp. 155186). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freedman, D., Thornton, A., Cambum, D., Alwin, D., & Young-DeMarco, L. (1988). The life history calendar: A technique for collecting retrospective data. Sociological Methodology, 18, 3768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, J., Kriss, M. R., Koch, M., & Lindholm, L. (1988). Recurrent depression in adolescents: A follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 4954.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrington, R. (1989). Child and adult depression: Concepts and continuities. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 26, 1229.Google ScholarPubMed
Harrington, R., Fudge, H., Rutter, M., Pickles, A., & Hill, J. (1990). Adult outcomes of childhood and adolescent depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 465473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrington, R., Fudge, H., Rutter, M., Pickles, A., & Hill, J. (1991). Adult outcomes of childhood and adolescent depression: II. Links with antisocial disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 434439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henry, B., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Langley, J., & Silva, P. A. (1994). On the “remembrance of things past”: A longitudinal evaluation of the retrospective method. Psychological Assessment, 6, 92101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jencks, C., Perman, L., & Rainwater, L. (1988). What is a good job? A new measure of labor-market success. American Journal of Sociology, 93, 13221357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junger-Tas, J., Terlouw, G., & Klein, M. W. (1994). Delinquent behavior among young people in the western world. New York: Kugler.Google Scholar
Kagan, J. (1969). The three faces of continuity in human development. In Goslin, D. A. (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research (pp. 9831002). Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Kandel, D. B., & Davies, M. (1986). Adult sequelae of adolescent depressive symptoms. Archives of General Psychiatry. 43, 255262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kashani, J. H., Beck, N. C., Hoeper, E. W., Fallahi, C., Corcoran, C. M., McAllister, J. A., Rosenberg, T. K., & Reid, J. C. (1987). Psychiatric disorders in a community sample of adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry. 144, 584589.Google Scholar
Kellam, S. G., Rebok, G. W., Mayer, L. S., Ialongo, N., & Kalodner, C. R. (1994). Depressive symptoms over first grade and their response to a developmental epidemiologically based preventive trial aimed at improving achievement. Development and Psychopathology. 6, 463481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessler, R. C., McGonagle, K. A., Zhao, S., Nelson, C. B., Hughes, M., Eshleman, S., Wittchen, H. U., & Kendler, K. S. (1994). Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States: Results from the National Comorbidity Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 51, 819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovacs, M., Feinberg, T. L., Crouse-Novak, M. A., Paulauskas, S. L., & Finkelstein, R. (1984). Depressive disorders in childhood I. A longitudinal prospective study of characteristics and recovery. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 229237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, M. E., & Elster, A. B. (1983). Parental behavior of adolescent mothers and fathers. In Elster, A. B. & Lamb, M. E. (Eds.), Adolescent fatherhood (pp. 89106). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Lewinsohn, P. M., Hops, H., Roberts, R. E., Seeley, J. R., & Andrews, J. A. (1993). Adolescent psychopathology: I. Prevalence and incidence of depression and other DSM-III-R disorders in high school students. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 133144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Magdol, L., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Newman, D. L., Fagan, J., & Silva, P. A. (in press). Gender differences in partner violence in a birth cohort of 21-year-olds: Bridging the gap between clinical and epidemiological approaches. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.Google Scholar
McGee, R., Feehan, M., Williams, S., Partridge, F., Silva, P. A., & Kelly, J. (1990). DSM-III disorders in a large sample of adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 611619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahon, R. J. (1994). Diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of externalizing problems in children: The role of longitudinal data. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 62, 901917.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mednick, S. A. (1978). Berkson's fallacy and high-risk research. In Wynne, L. C. (Ed.), The nature of schizophrenia (pp. 442452). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1990). Juvenile delinquency and attention deficit disorder: Developmental trajectories from age 3 to 15. Child Development, 61. 893910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Dickson, N., Silva, P. A., & Stanton, W. (1996). Childhood-onset versus adolescent-onset antisocial conduct in males: Natural history from age 3 to 18. Development and Psychopathology. 8, 399424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Silva, P. A., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1995). Individual differences in personality and intelligence are linked to crime: Cross-context evidence from nations, neighborhoods, genders, races, and age-cohorts. In Hagan, J. (Ed.), Current perspectives on aging and the life cycle, Volume 4. Delinquency and disrepute in the life course: Contextual and dynamic analyses. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., Lynam, D. R., & Silva, P. A. (1994). Neuropsychological tests predict persistent male delinquency. Criminology, 32, 101124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., Silva, P. A., Lynam, D. R., & Henry, B. (1994). Self-reported delinquency at age 18: New Zealand's Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. In Junger-Tas, J. & Terlouw, G. J. (Eds.), The international self-report delinquency project (pp. 354369). Amsterdam: Kugler.Google Scholar
Newman, D. L., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Magdol, L., Silva, P. A., & Stanton, W. R. (1996). Psychiatric disorder in a birth cohort of young adults: Prevalence, co-morbidity, clinical significance, and new case incidence from age 11 to 21. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 552562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ollendick, T. H., & King, N. J. (1994). Diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of internalizing problems in children: The role of longitudinal data. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 918927.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petersen, A. C., Compas, B. E., Brooks-Gunn, J., Stemmler, M., Ey, S., & Grant, K. E. (1993). Depression in adolescence. American Psychologist, 48, 155168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quinton, D., Pickles, A., Maughan, B., & Rutter, M. (1993). Partners, peers, and pathways: Assortative pairing and continuities in conduct disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 763783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, U., Ryan, N. D., Birmaher, B., Dahl, R. E., Williamson, D. E., Kaufman, J., Rao, R., & Nelson, B. (1995). Unipolar depression in adolescents: Clinical outcome in adulthood. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 566578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robins, L. N. (1966). Deviant children grow up. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Robins, L. N. (1978). Sturdy childhood predictors of adult outcomes: Replications from longitudinal studies. Psychological Medicine, 8, 611622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robins, L. N. (1986). The consequences of conduct disorder in girls. In Olweus, D., Block, J., & Radke-Yarrow, M. (Eds.), Development of antisocial and prosocial behavior: Research, theories, and issues (pp. 385414). Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Robins, L. N., Helzer, J. E., Cottler, L., & Goldring, E. (1989). Diagnostic Inteniew Schedule, Version III-R. Unpublished manuscript, Washington University, St. Louis, MO.Google Scholar
Robins, L. N., & Price, R. K. (1991). Adult disorders predicted by childhood conduct problems: Results from the NIMH epidemiologic catchment area project. Psychiatry, 54, 116132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M., Graham, P., Chadwick, O. F. D., & Yule, W. (1976). Adolescent turmoil: Fact or fiction? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 3556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sameroff, A. J., & Chandler, M. J. (1975). Reproductive risk and the continuum of caretaking casualty. In Horowitz, F. D. (Ed.), Review of child development research, Volume 4. (pp. 187244). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Silva, P. A. (1990). The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study: A fifteen year longitudinal study. Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 4, 96127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stattin, H., & Magnusson, D. (1990). Pubertal maturation in female development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Straus, M. A. (1990). Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: The Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales. In Straus, M. A. & Gelles, R. J. (Eds.), Physical violence in American families: Risk factors and adaptations to violence in 8, 145 families (pp. 2947). New Brunswick: Transaction.Google Scholar
van Dijk, J., & Mayhew, P. (1992). Criminal victimization in the industrial world. The Hague: Netherlands Ministry of Justice.Google Scholar
Widom, C. S. (1989). Does violence beget violence? A critical examination of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zoccolillo, M. (1993). Gender and the development of conduct disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 6578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zoccolillo, M., Pickles, A., Quinton, D., & Rutter, M. (1992). The outcome of childhood conduct disorder: Implications for defining adult personality disorder and conduct disorder. Psychological Medicine, 22, 971986.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zoccolillo, M., & Rogers, K. (1991). Characteristics and outcome of hospitalized adolescent girls with conduct disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 973981.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed