Stable Interindividual Differences Research Articles

Sex-specific associations between childhood trauma and adult systemic inflammation in daily life.

Childhood trauma may contribute to lifelong health through chronic systemic inflammation. However, associations between childhood trauma and inflammation are mixed, indicating that distinct types of childhood trauma may relate to inflammation differently. Moreover, most studies use a single assessment of inflammatory markers that may not reliably estimate stable interindividual differences. The current study is the first to examine relationships between childhood trauma and an ecologically valid measure of inflammation derived from repeated assessments of interleukin (IL)-6 in daily life. We also examine the possibility that glucocorticoid sensitivity and patterns of daily cortisol may contribute to observed associations. Finally, we explore whether biological sex moderates relationships between childhood trauma and IL-6. Participants were 283 healthy adults aged 40-64 (57% female, 23% Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and self-collected dried blood spots at home on 4 days to measure IL-6. Measures of salivary cortisol and blood-based glucocorticoid sensitivity were also assessed. Childhood trauma was not associated with IL-6 in the sample as a whole. However, exploratory analyses showed that childhood trauma related to IL-6 differently for males and females, such that total trauma and emotional neglect predicted higher IL-6 for males but not females. Results persisted after adjustment for covariates. There was no evidence for indirect effects via cortisol or glucocorticoid sensitivity. Childhood trauma and, specifically, emotional neglect were associated with IL-6 in daily life among middle-aged males. Additional research is needed to elucidate biological and behavioral pathways underlying these associations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The relations among prosocial behavior, hedonic, and eudaimonic well-being in everyday life.

Existing research highlights the significance of prosocial behavior (voluntary, intentional behavior that results in benefits for another) to people's well-being. Yet, the extent to which this expected positive relation operates at the within-person level (e.g., is more prosocial behavior than usual related to a higher than usual level of well-being?) while taking into account stable interindividual differences, remains a research question that deserves further investigation. In this study, we aimed to explore the relations between prosocial behavior and hedonic (HWB; subjective assessment of life satisfaction and happiness) and eudaimonic (EWB; actualization of human potential in alignment with personal goals, including concepts like meaning in life and closeness to others) well-being in daily life. Using ecological momentary assessment for 4 weeks, data were collected from two British samples, comprising 82 adolescents and 166 adults. Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling revealed a positive relations between prosocial behavior and HWB/EWB at both between and within-person levels across the samples. In summary, these findings further support the positive link between prosocial behavior and well-being in everyday life. Notably, this association was consistent across different age groups (adolescent and adults) at both between and within-person levels.

How and why aversive personality is expressed in political preferences.

Political orientation reflects beliefs, opinions, and values that are, at least in part, rooted in stable interindividual differences. Whereas evidence has accumulated with regard to the relevance of basic personality dimensions, especially concerning the sociocultural dimension of political ideology, less attention has been paid to the more specific dispositional tendency to assign a higher weight to one's own utility above others' (i.e., socially aversive personality), which is likely to play a pivotal role concerning the economic dimension of political ideology in particular. In three studies with over 66,000 participants from 38 countries, we show that individuals with elevated levels in aversive personality tend to endorse more right-wing political orientations in terms of a single left-right dimension, hold relevant ideological beliefs tied to both sociocultural and economic conservatism, and report corresponding electoral voting behavior. We further provide support for the idea that this overlap between a dispositional tendency toward aversive behavior and a right-wing political orientation can be attributed to shared belief systems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Declarative memory supports children's math skills: A longitudinal study.

Substantial progress has been made in understanding the neurocognitive underpinnings of learning math. Building on this work, it has been hypothesized that declarative and procedural memory, two domain-general learning and memory systems, play important roles in acquiring math skills. In a longitudinal study, we tested whether in fact declarative and procedural memory predict children's math skills during elementary school years. A sample of 109 children was tested across grades 2, 3 and 4. Linear mixed-effects regression and structural equation modeling revealed the following. First, learning in declarative but not procedural memory was associated with math skills within each grade. Second, declarative but not procedural memory in each grade was related to math skills in all later grades (e.g., declarative memory in grade 2 was related to math skills in grade 4). Sensitivity analyses showed that the pattern of results was robust, except for the longitudinal prediction of later math skills when accounting for stable inter-individual differences via the inclusion of random intercepts. Our findings highlight the foundational role of early domain-general learning and memory in children's acquisition of math.

Perceptuomotor skill acquisition in a solo manual ball-and-beam task with varying accuracy requirements.

In the manual ball-and-beam task, participants have to control a ball that is rolling continuously on a long and hand-held beam. Since the task can be performed individually, in a solo action setting, as well as collaboratively, in a (dyadic) joint action setting, it allows us to investigate how joint performances arise from individual performances, which we investigate in a series of interrelated studies. Here we focused on individual skill acquisition on the ball-and-beam task in the solo action setting, with the goal to characterize the behavioral dynamics that arise from learning to couple (ball motion) perception and (beam motion) action. By moving a beam extremity up and down to manipulate the beam's inclination angle, the task's objective was to roll the ball as fast as and accurately as possible between two indicated targets on the beam. Based on research into reciprocal aiming tasks, we hypothesized that the emergent dynamics of the beam's inclination angle would be constrained by the size of the targets, such that large targets would evoke a continuous beam movement strategy, while small targets would lead to a discrete beam movement strategy. 16 participants individually practiced the task in two separate six-block sessions. Each block consisted of one trial per target-size condition (small, medium and large). Overall, the number of target hits increased over trials, due to a larger range of motion of the beam's inclination angle, a stronger correlation between the ball and beam motion and a smaller variability of the beam motion. Contrary to our expectations, target size did not appreciably affect the shape of the beam movement patterns. Instead, we found stable inter-individual differences in the movement strategies adopted that were uncorrelated with the number of target hits on a trial. We concluded that multiple movement strategies may lead to success on the task, while individual skill acquisition was characterized by the refinement of behavioral dynamics that emerged in an early stage of learning. We speculate that such differences in individual strategies on the task may affect the interpersonal coordination that arises in joint-action performances on the task.

Comparing dropout intentions of math students on trainee teacher courses versus bachelor of science courses using intensive longitudinal data

In the past, high dropout rates of university math students have been recurrently observed, causing psychological and economic costs for individuals and society. In this article, we draw on prospective, intensive longitudinal data (ILD) collected at a large German university to examine the effects of stable inter-individual differences (e.g., general math competencies) and intra-individual changes (e.g., motivational states) on the intention to drop out of math studies, an important precursor for actual dropout. Given the ongoing discussion on whether student teachers differ from other types of students in their characteristics (e.g., with respect to cognitive abilities), we were particularly interested in differences in dropout intentions between first-year math B.Sc. and B.Ed. students, who attend the same introductory lectures. Using recent residual dynamic structural equation modeling techniques (RDSEM) we find that dropout intentions of math students in their first semester depend on both baseline characteristics and motivational changeable states which occur during the course. Furthermore, it is shown that B.Sc. and B.Ed. students differ regarding their intra-individual effects and have different trajectories of dropout intentions over time such that they cannot be assumed to be a homogeneous group. The results suggest that the two groups require differential treatment concerning the prevention of early dropouts.

Matthew effects in reading and mathematics: Examining developmental patterns in population data

This study examined whether Matthew effects were evident in developmental patterns of reading and mathematics skills from middle childhood to adolescence. We obtained standardized reading and mathematics scores at Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 for full cohorts of students in two Australian states, NSW (N = 88,958, 48% female) and Victoria (N = 65,984, 49% female). Latent growth curve models were used to identify the best-fitting longitudinal trajectories of reading and mathematics, and to examine whether cumulative (i.e. a Matthew effect), compensatory, or stable interindividual differences characterized development in each domain. For both reading and mathematics, and in both samples, growth decelerated as grade levels increased, with latent basis models fitting the data better than linear models. Negative intercept-slope covariances, and decreasing variances at increasing grades in both domains indicated compensatory growth patterns, rather than cumulative patterns or Matthew effects. These results indicate that students with below average achievement at Grade 3 make greater gains to Grade 9 than their initially higher-achieving peers. Modeling growth trajectories in two longitudinal population datasets allows strong tests of theorized growth patterns for both reading and mathematics, and presents insights about developmental change in academic skills from middle childhood to adolescence.

Phenotypic Interindividual Differences in the Dynamic Structure of Sleep in Healthy Young Adults.

Evaluating the dynamic structure of sleep may yield new insights into the mechanisms underlying human sleep physiology. We analyzed data from a 12-day, 11-night, strictly controlled laboratory study with an adaptation night, 3 iterations of a baseline night followed by a recovery night after 36 h of total sleep deprivation, and a final recovery night. All sleep opportunities were 12 h in duration (22:00-10:00) and recorded with polysomnography (PSG). The PSG records were scored for the sleep stages: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep; non-REM (NREM) stage 1 sleep (S1), stage 2 sleep (S2), and slow wave sleep (SWS); and wake (W). Phenotypic interindividual differences were assessed using indices of dynamic sleep structure - specifically sleep stage transitions and sleep cycle characteristics - and intraclass correlation coefficients across nights. NREM/REM sleep cycles and sleep stage transitions exhibited substantial and stable interindividual differences that were robust across baseline and recovery nights, suggesting that mechanisms underlying the dynamic structure of sleep are phenotypic. In addition, the dynamics of sleep stage transitions were found to be associated with sleep cycle characteristics, with a significant relationship between the length of sleep cycles and the degree to which S2-to-W/S1 and S2-to-SWS transitions were in equilibrium. Our findings are consistent with a model for the underlying mechanisms that involves three subsystems - characterized by S2-to-W/S1, S2-to-SWS, and S2-to-REM transitions - with S2 playing a hub-like role. Furthermore, the balance between the two subsystems within NREM sleep (S2-to-W/S1 and S2-to-SWS) may serve as a basis for the dynamic regulation of sleep structure and may represent a novel target for interventions aiming to improve sleep.

Inter-individual differences in laboratory rats as revealed by three behavioural tasks

Stable inter-individual differences in behaviour and personality have been studied for several decades now. The aim of this study was to test the repeatability of behaviour of the Long Evans strain of laboratory rats in order to assess their inter-individual differences. Male laboratory rats (n = 36) were tested in a series of tasks (Open field test, Elevated plus maze test, and modified T-maze test) repeated over time to assess their personality traits. To evaluate the temporal stability of the behaviour, we calculated repeatability estimates of the examined traits. We also checked for a link in behavioural traits across these experiments, which would suggest the existence of a behavioural syndrome. We found stable inter-individual differences in behaviour. Interestingly, no link emerged between the tasks we studied and therefore we did not find support for a behavioural syndrome. The lack of behavioural correlations between these experiments suggests that the results derived from these tasks should be interpreted carefully, as these experiments may measure various behavioural axes. Moreover, the animals habituate to the apparatus. Consequently, behaviour in the Open field test and Elevated plus maze test is not fully consistent and repeatable across subsequent trials.

Temporal relationships between happiness and psychiatric disorders and their symptom severity in a large cohort study: the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA)

BackgroundNotwithstanding the firmly established cross-sectional association of happiness with psychiatric disorders and their symptom severity, little is known about their temporal relationships. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether happiness is predictive of subsequent psychiatric disorders and symptom severity (and vice versa). Moreover, it was examined whether changes in happiness co-occur with changes in psychiatric disorder status and symptom severity.MethodsIn the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), happiness (SRH: Self-Rated Happiness scale), depressive and social anxiety disorder (CIDI: Composite Interview Diagnostic Instrument) and depressive and anxiety symptom severity (IDS: Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology; BAI: Beck Anxiety Inventory; and FQ: Fear Questionnaire) were measured in 1816 adults over a three-year period. Moreover, we focused on occurrence and remittance of 6-month recency Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Social Anxiety Disorders (SAD) as the two disorders most intertwined with subjective happiness.ResultsInterindividual differences in happiness were quite stable (ICC of .64). Higher levels of happiness predicted recovery from depression (OR = 1.41; 95% CI = 1.10–1.80), but not social anxiety disorder (OR = 1.31; 95%CI = .94–1.81), as well as non-occurrence of depression (OR = 2.41; 95%CI = 1.98–2.94) and SAD (OR = 2.93; 95%CI = 2.29–3.77) in participants without MDD, respectively SAD at baseline. Higher levels of happiness also predicted a reduction of IDS depression (sr = − 0.08; 95%CI = -0.10 - -0.04), and BAI (sr = − 0.09; 95%CI = -0.12 - -0.05) and FQ (sr = − 0.06; 95%CI = -0.09 - -0.04) anxiety symptom scores. Conversely, presence of affective disorders, as well as higher depression and anxiety symptom severity at baseline predicted a subsequent reduction of self-reported happiness (with marginal to small sr values varying between −.04 (presence of SAD) to −.17 (depression severity on the IDS)). Moreover, changes in happiness were associated with changes in psychiatric disorders and their symptom severity, in particular with depression severity on the IDS (sr = − 0.46; 95%CI = −.50 - -.42).ConclusionsResults support the view of rather stable interindividual differences in subjective happiness, although level of happiness is inversely associated with changes in psychiatric disorders and their symptom severity, in particular depressive disorder and depression severity.

Trait-like nocturnal sleep behavior identified by combining wearable, phone-use, and self-report data

Using polysomnography over multiple weeks to characterize an individual’s habitual sleep behavior while accurate, is difficult to upscale. As an alternative, we integrated sleep measurements from a consumer sleep-tracker, smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment, and user-phone interactions in 198 participants for 2 months. User retention averaged >80% for all three modalities. Agreement in bed and wake time estimates across modalities was high (rho = 0.81–0.92) and were adrift of one another for an average of 4 min, providing redundant sleep measurement. On the ~23% of nights where discrepancies between modalities exceeded 1 h, k-means clustering revealed three patterns, each consistently expressed within a given individual. The three corresponding groups that emerged differed systematically in age, sleep timing, time in bed, and peri-sleep phone usage. Hence, contrary to being problematic, discrepant data across measurement modalities facilitated the identification of stable interindividual differences in sleep behavior, underscoring its utility to characterizing population sleep and peri-sleep behavior.

Variability of Lipids in Human Milk

Lipids in breastmilk play a critical role in infant growth and development. However, few studies have investigated sources of variability of both high- and low-abundant milk lipids. The objective of our study was to investigate individual and morning–evening differences in the human milk lipidome. In this study, a modified two-phase method (MTBE: Methanol 7:2) was validated for the extraction of lipids from human breastmilk. This method was then applied to samples from a group of 20 healthy women to measure inter- and intra-individual (morning versus evening) variability of the breastmilk lipidome. We report here the levels of 237 lipid species from 13 sub-classes using reversed-phase liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (RP-LCMS) and direct-infusion mass spectrometry (DI-MS). About 85% of lipid species showed stable inter-individual differences across time points. Half of lipid species showed higher concentrations in the evening compared with the morning, with phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs) and triacylglycerols (TAGs) exhibiting the largest changes. In morning and evening samples, the biological variation was greater for diacylglycerols (DAGs) and TAGs compared with phospholipids and sphingolipids, and the variation in DAGs and TAGs was greater in evening samples compared with morning samples. These results demonstrate that variation in the milk lipidome is strongly influenced by individual differences and time of day.

"Teacher self-efficacy and burnout: Determining the directions of prediction through an autoregressive cross-lagged panel model": Correction to Kim and Burić (2019).

Reports an error in Teacher self-efficacy and burnout: Determining the directions of prediction through an autoregressive cross-lagged panel model by Lisa E. Kim and Irena Buric (Journal of Educational Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, Oct 10, 2019, np). In the original article, one of the studies discussed (Praetorius et al., 2017), was incorrectly interpreted. The longitudinal study findings from Praetorius et al (2017) challenged the assumption that TSE may be an antecedent construct. When teachers’ stable inter-individual differences were taken into account, there were no significant cross-lagged effects from TSE to teaching quality (or vice versa). (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2019-60502-001). It is often assumed that low levels of teacher self-efficacy (TSE) leads to negative outcomes, including burnout; however, the temporal order of the construct predictions has rarely been examined. We used an autoregressive cross-lagged panel design to examine whether TSE and burnout are concurrently associated with each other, whether TSE predicts future burnout levels, and/or whether burnout predicts future TSE levels. An initial sample of 3,002 Croatian teachers (82% female) from across three educational levels (i.e., elementary, middle, and secondary schools) with varying years of teaching experiences (M = 15.28, SD = 10.50) completed questionnaires on their levels of TSE and burnout (exhaustion and disengagement) at 3 time points (at approximately 6-month intervals). We found that burnout has a more prominent role in predicting future levels of TSE than TSE does in predicting future levels of burnout. These findings challenge the theoretical and empirical conceptualizations assuming that TSE is a predictor of burnout. Policies and interventions that focus on decreasing teacher burnout rather than increasing TSE levels may be best. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Teacher self-efficacy and burnout: Determining the directions of prediction through an autoregressive cross-lagged panel model.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported online in Journal of Educational Psychology on Sep 17 2020 (see record 2020-70452-001). In the original article, one of the studies discussed (Praetorius et al., 2017), was incorrectly interpreted. The longitudinal study findings from Praetorius et al (2017) challenged the assumption that TSE may be an antecedent construct. When teachers’ stable inter-individual differences were taken into account, there were no significant cross-lagged effects from TSE to teaching quality (or vice versa).] It is often assumed that low levels of teacher self-efficacy (TSE) leads to negative outcomes, including burnout; however, the temporal order of the construct predictions has rarely been examined. We used an autoregressive cross-lagged panel design to examine whether TSE and burnout are concurrently associated with each other, whether TSE predicts future burnout levels, and/or whether burnout predicts future TSE levels. An initial sample of 3,002 Croatian teachers (82% female) from across three educational levels (i.e., elementary, middle, and secondary schools) with varying years of teaching experiences (M = 15.28, SD = 10.50) completed questionnaires on their levels of TSE and burnout (exhaustion and disengagement) at 3 time points (at approximately 6-month intervals). We found that burnout has a more prominent role in predicting future levels of TSE than TSE does in predicting future levels of burnout. These findings challenge the theoretical and empirical conceptualizations assuming that TSE is a predictor of burnout. Policies and interventions that focus on decreasing teacher burnout rather than increasing TSE levels may be best. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Integrative personality assessment in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis).

In nonhuman animals, individuals of the same sex and age differ in their behavior patterns consistently across time, comparable with human personality differences. To draw conclusions about the adaptive value of behavior traits, it is essential to study them in the wild where animals are subject to the ecological pressures that promoted the evolution of behavior strategies. This study was conducted in the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand, on 4 groups of habituated wild Assamese macaques by observers who had familiarized themselves with the subjects over the course of an ongoing long-term study. We used a multimethod approach enabling the most comprehensive understanding of variation in stable interindividual differences in a species-typical ecological setting. We combined trait ratings (TRs), assessed with observer-report questionnaires (54-item Hominoid Personality Questionnaire) of 107 individuals of diverse age-sex classes, with behavior codings (BCs) of 24 adult males. We found male and female personality constructs to be congruent and examined reliability and construct validity. Combining trait rating and behavioral coding, we found two solutions with five factors to best describe the personality structure of the males: one structure comprised the dimensions GregariousnessBC, AggressivenessBC, SociabilityBC and VigilanceBC, complemented by a ConfidenceTR domain and the other structure OpportunismTR, ConfidenceTR, FriendlinessTR, ActivityTR complemented with VigianceBC. We discuss our findings with regard to the importance of construct validity and reproducibility in the context of method development and standardization in nonhuman animal personality research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Thinking in action: Need for Cognition predicts Self-Control together with Action Orientation

Need for Cognition describes relatively stable interindividual differences in cognitive motivation. Previous research has shown relations of Need for Cognition to Self-Control–a capacity that can be broadly defined as resistance to temptation–yet, the processes underlying this relation remain unclear. One explanation for the prediction of Self-Control by Need for Cognition can be an increased motivation to invest cognitive effort with higher levels of Need for Cognition. Another possible link could be that individual differences in the implementation of Self-Control intentions may play a moderating or mediating role for the predictive value of Need for Cognition. Such individual differences in the self-motivated initiation and maintenance of intentions are described by dispositional Action Orientation. Therefore, in the present study, Action Orientation was examined with regard to its possible role in explaining the relation of Need for Cognition to Self-Control. In a sample of 1209 young adults, Self-Control was assessed with two different self-report instruments and moderation and mediation models of the relationship between Need for Cognition, Action Orientation, and Self-Control were tested. While there was no evidence for a moderating role of Action Orientation in explaining the relation of Need for Cognition and Self-Control, Action Orientation was found to partly mediate this relation with a remaining direct effect of Need for Cognition on Self-Control. These results add to the conceptual understanding of Need for Cognition and demonstrate the relevance of trait variables to predict Self-Control.

Stable individual differences in vocalisation and motor activity during acute stress in the domestic cat

The behavioural assessment of individual animals in stressful situations should consider measures which are consistent across repeated testing, and therefore truly representative of an individual's behaviour. Here we report a study conducted on 40 neutered adult cats (Felis silvestris catus) of both sexes, originating from two animal shelters in Mexico and Hungary. We recorded the responses of the cats to repeated brief confinement trials that mimicked a common situation (confinement in a pet carrier). This test was repeated three times, leaving one week between trials, to assess short-term repeatability. Stable inter-individual differences in two behavioural measures, the number of separation calls and the duration of motor activity, were found, although the inter-individual differences in vocalisation were more pronounced than they were for motor activity. Additionally, the overall number of vocalisations emitted remained stable despite repeated testing, whereas motor activity tended to decrease week to week. There was a negative effect of age on vocalisation rate, and no effect of sex on either behaviour. No correlation between the two behavioural measures was found. We suggest that, in adult cats, vocalisation may be more reliable than motor activity as a behavioural measure of stress.

The anger–depression connection: Between-persons and within-person associations from late adolescence to midlife.

Six waves of data from 944 Canadian high school seniors surveyed for 25 years (age 18 to 43) were analyzed to compare three models of the temporal associations between expressed anger and depressive symptoms (anger→depression; depression→anger; anger↔depression) and a between-persons differences only model (↑anger = ↑depression). Perceived availability of social support was examined as a mediator of the anger-depression association. Random intercept cross-lagged panel analyses supported the between-persons differences only model, controlling for sociodemographic variables, within-time covariances between construct residuals, and autoregressive stabilities: Individuals who were higher on expressed anger tended to be higher on depressive symptoms and, within individuals, neither fluctuations in anger nor depression appeared to influence the other across intervals ranging from one year to 18 years. Although social support did not mediate an anger-depression connection, intraindividual increases in expressed anger predicted future intraindividual increases in perceived support (i.e., age 18 anger to age 19 support, and age 20 anger to age 22 support). A similar path from age 19 depressive symptoms to age 20 perceived support was observed. There were also some gender differences in the paths. The results point to stable interindividual differences in negative emotionality in place by age 18 and maintained up to age 43. (PsycINFO Database Record

Pervasive influence of idiosyncratic associative biases during facial emotion recognition

Facial morphology has been shown to influence perceptual judgments of emotion in a way that is shared across human observers. Here we demonstrate that these shared associations between facial morphology and emotion coexist with strong variations unique to each human observer. Interestingly, a large part of these idiosyncratic associations does not vary on short time scales, emerging from stable inter-individual differences in the way facial morphological features influence emotion recognition. Computational modelling of decision-making and neural recordings of electrical brain activity revealed that both shared and idiosyncratic face-emotion associations operate through a common biasing mechanism rather than an increased sensitivity to face-associated emotions. Together, these findings emphasize the underestimated influence of idiosyncrasies on core social judgments and identify their neuro-computational signatures.

General self-efficacy as a driving factor of post-stroke depression: A longitudinal study

ABSTRACTPost-stroke depression (PSD) is the most common psychiatric condition after stroke, affecting one third of survivors. Despite identification of meaningful predictors, knowledge about the interplay between these factors remains fragmentary. General self-efficacy (GSE) is closely linked to PSD, yet direction and magnitude of this relationship remains unclear. The authors assessed the relationship between GSE and depression during the first two years post-stroke while controlling for stable inter-individual differences using continuous time (CT) structural equation modelling (SEM). Patients of two German rehabilitation centres (N = 294, mean age = 63.78 years, SD = 10.83) were assessed six weeks after ischemic stroke and at four follow-ups covering two years. GSE Scale and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were used to assess GSE and depression. CT-analysis revealed significantly higher within-person cross-effects of GSE on GDS (a21 = −.29) than vice versa (a12 = −.17). Maximal cross-lagged effects emerged six months post-stroke. Our results show that decreasing GSE led to increasing depressiveness, and only to a smaller extent vice versa. This suggests that fostering GSE by strengthening perceived control after stroke can counter PSD emersion and exacerbation. Six months post-stroke, when patients face social re-integration, programmes focusing on GSE could potentially help to prevent later PSD.