Abstract
There are distinct individual trajectories of depressive symptoms across adolescence which are most often differentiated into low, moderate/stable, and high/increasing groups. Research has found genetic predisposition for depression associated with trajectories characterized by greater depressive symptoms. However, the majority of this research has been conducted in White youth. Moreover, a separate literature indicates that trajectories with elevated depressive symptoms can result in substance use. It is critical to identify depressive symptom trajectories, genetic predictors, and substance use outcomes in diverse samples in early adolescence to understand distinct processes and convey equitable benefits from research. Using data from the Adolescent Cognitive Brain Development Study (ABCD), we examined parent-reported depressive symptom trajectories within Black/African American (AA, n = 1783), White/European American (EA, n = 6179), and Hispanic/Latinx (LX, n = 2410) youth across four annual assessments in early adolescence (age 9–10 to 12–13). We examined racially/ethnically aligned polygenic scores (Dep-PGS) as predictors of trajectories as well as substance use intent and perceived substance use harm as outcomes at age 12–13. Differential trajectories were found in AA, EA, and LX youth but low and high trajectories were represented within each group. In EA youth, greater Dep-PGS were broadly associated with membership in trajectories with greater depressive symptoms. Genetic effects were not significant in AA and LX youth. In AA youth, membership in the low trajectory was associated with greater substance use intent. In EA youth, membership in trajectories with higher depressive symptoms was associated with greater substance use intent and less perceived harm. There were no associations between trajectories and substance use intent and perceived harm in LX youth. These findings indicate that there are distinct depressive symptom trajectories in AA, EA, and LX youth, accompanied by unique associations with genetic predisposition for depressive symptoms and substance use outcomes.
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Data Availability
All data analyzed in the current study are available from the National Institutes of Mental Health Data Archive (https://nda.nih.gov/).
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Acknowledgements
Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM (ABCD) Study (https://abcdstudy.org), held in the NIMH Data Archive (NDA). This is a multisite, longitudinal study designed to recruit more than 10,000 children age 9-10 and follow them over 10 years into early adulthood. The ABCD Study® is supported by the National Institutes of Health and additional federal partners under award numbers U01DA041048, U01DA050989, U01DA051016, U01DA041022, U01DA051018, U01DA051037, U01DA050987, U01DA041174, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041028, U01DA041134, U01DA050988, U01DA051039, U01DA041156, U01DA041025, U01DA041120, U01DA051038, U01DA041148, U01DA041093, U01DA041089, U24DA041123, U24DA041147. A full list of supporters is available at https://abcdstudy.org/federal-partners.html. A listing of participating sites and a complete listing of the study investigators can be found at https://abcdstudy.org/consortium_members/. ABCD consortium investigators designed and implemented the study and/or provided data but did not necessarily participate in the analysis or writing of this report. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or ABCD consortium investigators. The ABCD data repository grows and changes over time. The ABCD data used in this report came from ABCD Data Release 4.0 (http://dx.doi.org/10.15154/1523041). This research is also based on data from the Million Veteran Program (MVP), Office of Research and Development, Veterans Health Administration (Gaziano et al., 2016). Data were drawn from dbGaP (phs001672.v11.p1). The MVP was supported by the Veterans Administration (VA) MVP award #000. We thank MVP staff, researchers, and volunteers, who have contributed to MVP, and especially participants who previously served their country in the military and now generously agreed to enroll in the MVP study.
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This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institutes of Health: Office of the Director, and Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (K01DA042828 to KE).
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KE: conceived the current study and participated in its design, coordination, data analysis and drafting the manuscript; JS participated in study design and drafting the manuscript; AT and JK: participated in drafting the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Kit K. Elam, Jinni Su, Jodi Kutzner, and Angel Trevino declare that they have no competing interests.
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Elam, K.K., Su, J., Kutzner, J. et al. Individual Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms Within Racially-Ethnically Diverse Youth: Associations with Polygenic Risk for Depression and Substance Use Intent and Perceived Harm. Behav Genet 54, 86–100 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-023-10167-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-023-10167-6