Negative emotionality, stress, and depressive symptoms in the transition through of college

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prospective associations between negative emotionality, perceived stress, and depressive symptomology in a longitudinal sample of first-year college students (N = 209, ~62 % female, ~90 % white, Southeastern USA). Data assessment points were in the first and second years of college as well as ~four years after baseline (retention rates ≥80 %). Results from our random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) showed robust evidence that negative emotionality, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms were strongly influenced by stable, trait-like influences over time. These latent factors were also moderately to strongly correlated. After accounting for these between-person effects, there was comparatively weak evidence of any within-person change in one variable leading to meaningful change in another. Even the within-person (residual) correlations increased with time, suggesting these constructs became increasingly interdependent. Results best support a co-development model of negative emotionality, perceived stress, and depressive symptom development concerning the population of emerging adults transitioning through college.