Dysphoric Adolescents as Young Adults: a Prospective Study of the Psychological Sequelae of Depressed Mood in Adolescence

The longitudinal implications of age-18 dysphoric mood were evaluated in 87 23-year-old young adults, using a prospective multi-informant design. Elevated initial CES-D (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression)scores were found to predict chronic depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in both genders. The results indicate that adolescent dysphoric mood is an important predictor of psychological distress in young adults, especially in young adult women for whom the prospective correlations of adolescent dysphoria are more independent of prior anxiety and IQ than in young adult men. (74 refs)