Temperamental Positive and Negative Emotionality and Children's Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Prospective Study from Age Three to Age Ten

Abstract

This study examined associations between temperament at age 3 and maternal reports of youths' depressive symptoms at ages 7 and 10. Fifty-three preschool aged children were assessed for positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) using maternal reports of temperament and laboratory and naturalistic home observations. Neither PE nor NE at age 3 predicted depressive symptoms at age 7 after controlling for children's anxious/depressive symptoms at age 3. However, both observational and parent-report measures indicated that lower PE at age 3 predicted greater depressive symptoms at age 10 after controlling for NE and anxious/depressive symptoms at age 3. Moreover, mothers' reports indicated that children with both lower PE and higher NE at age 3 exhibited the greatest increase in depressive symptoms at age 10. Our findings are consistent with models asserting that low PE and/or low PE in conjunction with high NE is a temperamental risk factor for depressive symptoms.