Risk for Depression and Anxiety in Youth: The Interaction between Negative Affectivity, Effortful Control, and Stressors

Theories of temperament suggest that individual differences in affective reactivity (e.g., negative affectivity) may confer risk for internalizing psychopathology in youth and that self-regulatory aspects of temperament (e.g., effortful control) may protect against the deleterious effects of high negative affective reactivity. However, no study to date has examined how the relationship between temperament and youth internalizing psychopathology may be moderated by stress. The current study used a prospective longitudinal design to test the interaction of temperament (e.g., negative affectivity and effortful control) and stressors as a predictor of youth (ages 7–16; 56 % female; N = 576) depressive and anxious symptoms over a 3-month period. Findings show that at low levels of stress, high levels of effortful control protect against the development of depressive and anxious symptoms among youth with high levels of negative affectivity. However, at high levels of stress, this buffering effect is not observed. Gender and grade did not moderate this relationship. Overall, findings extend current understanding of how the interaction of individual psychosocial vulnerabilities and environmental factors may confer increased or decreased risk for depressive and anxious symptoms.