Gretchen Gudmundsen, Ph.D.

Fellow in Child & Adolescent Depression

Project Details

PROJECT TITLE

Evaluating Coping and Stress Reactivity to Improve Behavioral Intervention for Adolescent Depression

Project Summary

An estimated 20% of youth experience a depressive episode by age 18, while 65% report transient or less severe depressive symptoms. Efforts to create efficacious treatments have been promising, but 30-40% of youth do not demonstrate a clinically significant response to current interventions. A challenge for treatment research is to customize interventions by targeting specific mechanisms for non-responsive adolescents. This project seeks to address a critical component of this agenda by revisiting the basic scientific aspects of stress, coping and depression.

Given the significance of stress, coping and stress reactivity on the emergence and long-term trajectory of depression, the present study seeks to evaluate these constructs through prospective follow-up of youth from an ongoing longitudinal study. Employing a multi-methodological approach – including physiological indices, observational ratings, interviews and self-report data – healthy controls and individuals with a depression history will participate in a laboratory visit involving a standardized interpersonal stressor task which will be videotaped for the purpose of coding coping responses, as well as completing measures and interviews of coping, depression and treatment utilization. In addition to extending our knowledge of how coping, stress reactivity and depression interrelate during the vulnerable adolescent years, results from the proposed study will contribute to efforts to improve and customize behavioral interventions.

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