Longitudinal Associations Between Reactive and Regulatory Temperament Traits and Depressive Symptoms in Middle Childhood

Abstract

Although a large literature has examined the role of temperament in adult and adolescent depression, few studies have investigated interactions between reactive and regulatory temperament traits in shaping depressive symptoms in children over time. Child temperament measures (laboratory observations and maternal reports) and depressive symptoms were collected from 205 seven-year-olds (46% boys), who were followed up 1 (N = 181) and 2 (N = 171) years later. Child participants were Caucasian (87.80%), Asian (1.95%), or other ethnicity (7.80%); 2.45% of the sample was missing ethnicity data. Multilevel modeling was used to investigate within- and between-person variance in intercepts and slopes of child depressive symptoms. A steeper increase in depressive symptoms was found for children lower in laboratory-assessed effortful control (EC). Lower mother-reported surgency and higher mother-reported NE predicted increases in child depressive symptoms in the context of lower mother-reported EC. Our findings implicate EC as having main and moderating effects related to depressive symptoms in middle childhood. We emphasize the importance of developing prevention programs that enhance EC-like abilities.