Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms During Adolescence: The Protective Roles of Adolescent and Family Assets Within ECHO's Diverse National Population

To understand the factors that preserve mental health amongst a diverse population of adolescents, we examined links between neighborhood-level resources, adolescents' self-reported personal assets (low perceived stress, meaning and purpose, life satisfaction), parent-reported family assets (household income, maternal mental health) and adolescents' self-reported depressive and anxiety symptoms. Participants included a racially and ethnically diverse national sample of 4325 adolescents (10 - 21 years) from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. Neighborhood-level resources were not directly associated with depressive or anxiety symptoms. However, higher levels of personal and family assets were related to lower levels of symptoms, regardless of neighborhood resources (ß's: -.09 to .55). Last, high neighborhood resources compensated for the absence of one asset - low perceived stress. For adolescents with levels of perceived stress that were just .17 SD above the sample mean, neighborhood resources were negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Findings did not vary across racial and ethnic groups. Results support the development of asset building endeavors that bolster positive child assets in adolescents and families to reduce mental health disparities. Implications for programs that seek to promote mental health amongst minoritized youth are discussed.

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Publication Details

Journal
Mental Health Science
Published
2025-01-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/mhs2.103
Primary Topic
Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms During Adolescence: The Protective Roles of Adolescent and Family Assets Within ECHO's Diverse National Population

Alexandra D. W. Sullivan, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Bianca P. Acevedo, Yi Li et al.
Mental Health Science
Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
article

Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms During Adolescence: The Protective Roles of Adolescent and Family Assets Within ECHO's Diverse National Population

Alexandra D. W. Sullivan, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Bianca P. Acevedo, Yi Li, Leslie D. Leve, Jody M. Ganiban, Amanda Noroña-Zhou, Alison E. Hipwell, Jean A. Frazier, Maxwell Armand Mansolf, Daniel P. Keating, Yeyi Zhu, Patricia A. Brennan, Chang Liu, Lihua Yao, Zhaoying Chen, Courtney K. Blackwell, Santiago Morales, Nicole R. Bush, Kaja Z. LeWinn
article en

Abstract

To understand the factors that preserve mental health amongst a diverse population of adolescents, we examined links between neighborhood-level resources, adolescents' self-reported personal assets (low perceived stress, meaning and purpose, life satisfaction), parent-reported family assets (household income, maternal mental health) and adolescents' self-reported depressive and anxiety symptoms. Participants included a racially and ethnically diverse national sample of 4325 adolescents (10 - 21 years) from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. Neighborhood-level resources were not directly associated with depressive or anxiety symptoms. However, higher levels of personal and family assets were related to lower levels of symptoms, regardless of neighborhood resources (ß's: -.09 to .55). Last, high neighborhood resources compensated for the absence of one asset - low perceived stress. For adolescents with levels of perceived stress that were just .17 SD above the sample mean, neighborhood resources were negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Findings did not vary across racial and ethnic groups. Results support the development of asset building endeavors that bolster positive child assets in adolescents and families to reduce mental health disparities. Implications for programs that seek to promote mental health amongst minoritized youth are discussed.

Mental Health ScienceVol. 3(1)
Northwestern University (US), University of Southern California (US), Pennsylvania State University (US), Oregon Research Institute (US), Kaiser Permanente (US), Harvard University (US), Emory University (US), University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (US), University of Pittsburgh (US), University of California, San Francisco (US), University of Oregon (US), George Washington University (US), University of Michigan (US), Oregon Department of Education (US), Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center (US), Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (US), Cohen Children's Medical Center (US), Washington State University (US)
National Institutes of Health, NIH Office of the Director
Openalex Percentile: Top 99%
Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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