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. 2022 Oct;34(4):1544-1559.
doi: 10.1017/S0954579421000146. Epub 2021 Apr 29.

Shift-&-Persist and discrimination predicting depression across the life course: An accelerated longitudinal design using MIDUSI-III

N Keita Christophe  1 , Gabriela L Stein  1
Affiliations

Shift-&-Persist and discrimination predicting depression across the life course: An accelerated longitudinal design using MIDUSI-III

N Keita Christophe et al. Dev Psychopathol. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Life course theorists posit that sensitive periods exist during life span development where risk and protective factors may be particularly predictive of psychological outcomes relative to other periods in life. While there have been between-cohort studies trying to examine differences in discrimination and depressive symptoms, these studies have not been designed to identify these sensitive periods, which are best modeled by examining intra-individual change across time. To identify sensitive periods where discrimination and shift-&-persist (S&P) - a coping strategy that may protect against the negative impact of discrimination - are most strongly predictive of depressive symptoms, we employed latent growth curve modeling using an accelerated longitudinal design to track intra-individual change in depressive symptoms from ages 20-69. Participants were 3,685 adults measured at three time points ~10 years apart from the Midlife in the United States study (Mage = 37.93, SD = 6.948 at Wave I). Results identified two sensitive periods in development where high levels of S&P interacted with discrimination to protect against depressive symptoms; during the 30s and a lagged effect where 40's S&P protected against depressive symptoms when participants were in their 50s. Implications for the life course study of discrimination, coping, and depression are discussed.

Keywords: depression; discrimination; life course; shift-&-persist; trajectories.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Graph of depressive trajectory across the life course and the same-decade impact of discrimination on depressive symptoms. Note. The symptom trajectory value should be interpreted as the level of depressive symptoms predicted based on one’s symptom trajectory across time. The effect of same decade discrimination value should be interpreted as the predicted level of depressive symptoms based on one’s exposure to discrimination during that decade of life. The difference between these values is equal to the significant (p < .05) beta weight for discrimination. The grey bar indicates the predicted level of depressive symptoms if participants experienced discrimination and used mean levels of S&P coping.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Simple slopes plot of the discrimination*S&P interaction predicting same-decade depressive symptoms in the thirties.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Simple slopes plot of the 10-year lagged interaction effect predicting depressive symptoms in the fifties.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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