Testing filial and neighborhood self-efficacy over time as novel mechanisms of resilience against adolescent depression

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Self-efficacy is a developmental task of adolescence, and has been identified as a protective factor promoting resilience against behavioral health problems such as depressive symptomatology. As adolescence is a developmental phase already marked by social, emotional, and physiological turbulence, youth in this stage have been identified to be at risk of more depressive symptoms when encountering parenting risk factors (e.g., less warmth, more hostility) and negative neighborhood social processes (e.g., social or physical disorder, few institutional resources for youth). Given that youth experience increasing independence throughout their daily lives as they progress through adolescence, the degree to which they feel efficacious in managing their safety and well-being throughout their varied environments may be correspondingly associated with their behavioral health (i.e., depressive symptomatology). Furthermore, adolescents' strong feelings of self-efficacy in one environment may interact across other higher-risk, stressful settings to protect their behavioral health. This study will specifically explore the degree to which neighborhood self-efficacy (i.e., perceived capability to maneuver safely through the neighborhood) intervenes in the link between adolescents' experience of negative neighborhood social processes (i.e., more physical and social disorder, perceived violence, and less collective efficacy and institutional resources for youth) and their depressive symptoms. This research additionally examines whether or not these intervening links are significantly different for youth with higher, vs. lower, levels of perceived filial self-efficacy (i.e., perceived capability to build and maintain a positive, functional relationship with their parents). This study will also examine which factors in adolescents' multiple environments best predict those filial and neighborhood self-efficacies. This is a longitudinal secondary data analysis utilizing data collected from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods dataset. The primary aims of this study are: 1. To examine the role of negative neighborhood social processes (i.e., more physical and social disorder, perceived violence, and less collective efficacy and institutional resources for youth) in adolescents' development of neighborhood self-efficacy; and the role of neighborhood self-efficacy on adolescents' development of depressive symptoms; and 2. To examine the protective effect of adolescents' filial self-efficacy on reduced development of depressive symptoms in the context of high-risk neighborhood environments (i.e., negative neighborhood social processes). Adolescents were recruited from socioeconomically- and ethnically-diverse neighborhoods, and approximately 1,500 individuals completed study surveys at each of the investigation's three time points.