The Role of Delay Discounting in the Generation of Stressful Life Events Across Adolescence.

Hammen's (1991) model of stress generation suggests that depressed individuals are more likely to behave in ways that bring about greater exposure to negative life events. More recent research suggests that adolescents with other types of psychological vulnerabilities, including those more likely to make impulsive choices, may also be predisposed to experience greater increases in stress over time. The current study examined whether delay discounting (DD), defined as the tendency to prefer smaller but immediately available rewards relative to larger, delayed rewards, predicts the generation of negative life events across adolescence and whether this is due to the association between DD and depressive symptoms. Participants (n = 213, Mage = 15, range 12-17) completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms and negative life events, as well as a behavioral measure assessing DD annually over four years. Results of latent growth models suggest that both independent and dependent negative life events increased across adolescence. Consistent with a stress generation framework, DD predicted the growth in dependent, but not independent, negative life events over this time period, controlling for baseline levels of depressive symptoms. Further exploratory analyses suggest that DD was associated with increases in depressive symptomology across adolescence, but that the relation between DD and changes in independent negative life events was not better accounted for by increases in depressive symptoms over time. Taken together, these findings suggest the importance of DD in predicting youths' exposure to dependent negative life events and point to potential avenues for clinical intervention.

Protocol for the Healing After Loss (HeAL) Study: a randomised controlled trial of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) for major depression following perinatal loss.

INTRODUCTION: This protocol describes a study testing the efficacy of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) for major depressive disorder following perinatal loss (early and late fetal death and early neonatal death). Perinatal loss is associated with elevated risk of major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Perinatal loss conveys specific treatment needs. The trial will be the first fully powered randomised trial of treatment for any psychiatric disorder following perinatal loss. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A sample of 274 women in Flint and Detroit areas in Michigan who experience a major depressive episode following a perinatal loss will be randomised to group IPT for perinatal loss or to group coping with depression. We anticipate that 50% of the sample will have co-occurring PTSD. Assessments occur at baseline, mid-treatment (8 weeks), post-treatment (16 weeks) and follow-up (28 weeks). Clinical outcomes include time to recovery from major depressive episode (primary), depressive symptoms, PTSD symptoms and time to recovery from PTSD. Additional outcomes include social support, social role functioning (including parental functioning for those with living children), well-being, grief (including complicated grief and fault beliefs) and fear of subsequent pregnancies. Social support and grief are hypothesised mediators of IPT effects on time to recovery from major depressive episode. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The trial was approved by Michigan State University's Biomedical Institutional Review Board. It has a data and safety monitoring board and has been submitted to the community-based organisation partners community ethics review board. Written operating procedures outline methods for protecting confidentiality, monitoring and recording adverse events, and safeguarding participants. We will share study results with research and clinical communities, community organisations through which we recruited, and will offer results to study participants. Deidentified datasets will be available through the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive and to qualified investigators on request. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04629599.

Exposure to maternal depressive symptoms and growth in adolescent substance use: The mediating role of delay discounting.

Maternal depression is associated with instability within the family environment and increases in offspring substance use across adolescence. Rates of delay discounting, or the tendency to select smaller rewards that are immediately available relative to larger, but delayed rewards, are also associated with steeper increases in substance use among youth. Moreover, recent research suggests that early unstable environments may reinforce youths' propensity towards opportunistic decision making and delay discounting specifically. The current prospective, longitudinal study examined links between maternal depressive symptoms, adolescent delay discounting, and subsequent substance use. Participants included 247 adolescents and their mothers who were assessed annually over a 6-year period (from ages 13 to 19 years). Results supported a small but significant mediation effect. Specifically, maternal depressive symptoms predicted increases in adolescent delay discounting, which, in turn, predicted steeper increases in adolescent substance use over time. Thus, youth decision making may represent a mechanism linking maternal depression and adolescent risk behaviors. Findings indicate the potential for interventions targeting parental psychopathology to prevent subsequent adolescent substance use.