1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The aim of this study was twofold: to identify distinct developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms from late elementary school through the end of high school, and to determine whether these trajectories can be predicted by attachment security to the mother and father assessed at baseline.» (p. 642)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«[I]t was expected that attachment security to the mother and the father at 11 years would predict a lower risk of belonging to a trajectory with higher depressive symptoms.» (p. 644)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Data for this study were collected from a sample of 416 adolescents (187 boys, 229 girls) across the province of Quebec, Canada in a longitudinal annual study covering a period of 6 years (6th grade/end of elementary school–11th grade/end of high school).» (p. 644)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«This study revealed the presence of distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms from age 11 to 16 years. Two of these trajectories were more problematic: one included youths with high depressive symptoms at age 11–12, and the other comprised mainly girls with high depressive symptoms at around age 14. Attachment security to parents sheds a new and complementary light on the understanding of these trajectories, in that attachment security to the mother and father predicted a lower risk of high depressive symptoms at age 11–12 years. However, only attachment security to the mother predicted a lower risk for these symptoms to worsen after age 12, while controlling for the adolescent’s gender, anxiety, and academic competence. Taken together, these results provide an argument for considering the adolescent’s perceptions of attachment to the mother and the father separately in order to understand the evolution of depressive symptomatology in adolescence.» (p. 651)