Poverty and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Longitudinal data on non-Hispanic White children from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 1,056) were used to examine whether the relationship between poverty (early childhood poverty, poverty persistence, and current poverty) and adolescent depressive symptoms (measured by the Children's Depression Inventory and the Internalizing Index) can be explained by the mother's own childhood depression and family characteristics measured during the child's first year of life. Associations between poverty and depressive symptoms among adolescents were explained by mother's childhood depression and whether the adolescent had lived with both parents during the first year of life. The findings highlight the need for appropriate treatment of childhood depression so as to reduce the adverse consequences in adulthood and for the next generation.