S-487 Young people’s depressive symptom trajectories and their education and employment. Comparing Canada and the United States

Abstract

<h3>Objective</h3> This study examines how trajectories of depressive symptoms from the age of 16–25 are related to early adult education and employment outcomes in Canada and the United States. <h3>Methods</h3> Data came from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (n=2348) and the American National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child/Young Adult Survey (n=3961). Depressive symptom trajectories from the age of 16–25 were identified separately for each country using growth-mixture modeling, and linked to respondents’ education and employment status (working with a post-secondary degree; working with no degree; working with a high school degree; in school; and, not in employment, education, or training i.e., NEET), and part/full-time employment (less than 30 hours/week, 30–40 hours/week, more than 40 hours/week). We assessed the association of depressive symptom trajectories with these outcomes using multivariable multinomial logistic regressions, calculating the adjusted predicted probability of each outcome using marginal standardization. <h3>Results</h3> In both countries four similar depressive symptom trajectories were identified: low-stable, increasing, decreasing, and first increasing then decreasing symptoms (i.e., mid-peak). In both countries, increasing, decreasing, and mid-peak trajectories were associated with higher odds of working with low educational credentials, and/or NEET relative to low-stable trajectories. In Canada, however, all trajectories had a higher predicted probability of either being in school or working with a post-secondary degree than the other outcomes; in the USA, all trajectory groups were most likely to be working with a high school degree. In the USA but not in Canada, increasing and decreasing trajectories were associated with higher odds of part-time work than full-time work. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Higher levels of depressive symptoms during the transition to adulthood are associated with working with no or low credentials, NEET, and working part-time in young adulthood. Country-level differences may modify the influence of depressive symptoms.