Association of Life Events and Depressive Symptoms among Puerto Rican Youth

Little has been published regarding socio-demographic determinants of depression and possible mechanisms for developing depressive symptoms between childhood and adolescence in Latino populations. This study aimed to examine Puerto Rican youth to determine whether total, negative or positive life events had a stronger effect on the development of depressive symptoms and what role place of residence, youth support from parents, and youth coping played. This was a secondary analysis of children and parent/caregiver self-reported data for 10-13 year old Puerto Rican youth residing in New York and Puerto Rico with no depressive symptoms at baseline (n=977) using three waves (2000-2003) of the Boricua Youth Study.  Results indicate that: 1) an increase in total, negative, or positive life events results in an increase in depressive symptoms; 2) the pattern is seen regardless of place of residence, youth support from parents, and youth coping; 3) youth with low coping had a higher number of depressive symptoms than youth with high coping regardless of number of total, negative, or positive life events; 4) the effects of negative life events on depressive symptoms was 11% higher than total events; and 5) the effects of positive life events on depressive symptoms was 34% higher than total events. This study shows that life events are useful indicators of risk for developing depressive symptoms among Puerto Rican youth.  Additional research is needed to increase our understanding of the mechanisms through which life events can result in an increase in depressive symptoms.