Between and within-person relations between psychological wellbeing and distress in adolescence: A random intercept cross-lagged panel examination.

Abstract

Holistic frameworks of mental health outline that a focus on psychopathology does not represent an optimal approach to defining, measuring and treating mental health. Rather, theoretical, empirical, and applied psychological efforts should incorporate psychological well-being (PWB). Studies of PWB have overwhelmingly focused on adult populations, rendering a translation down to adolescence difficult. The current study explores the between-person, as well as within-person short-term, prospective relations between psychopathology and wellbeing within a community sample of adolescents (i.e., 553 youth aged 12 - 18, mean age: 14.97 years, 51.2% Male, 40.7% of participants identified as Hispanic (225 individuals), 38.5% identified as White (213 individuals), and 35.6% identified as Black (197 individuals), 3-wave, 1-year survey). Results demonstrated significant, negative between-person relations between psychopathology and PWB (b_PHQ = -0.25, SE = 0.11, p = 0.021, b_VDS = -0.39, SE = 0.15, p = 0.011). At the within-person level, consistent positive prospective relations were identified for violent-delinquent behaviors and PWB, such that increases in individual levels of violent-delinquent behaviors tended to forecast higher levels of PWB at the next follow-up (b_PWBW2 = 0.21, SE_PWBW2 = 0.076, p < 0.01; b_PWBW3 = 0.14, SE_PWBW3 = 0.051, p < 0.01). At the within-person level, prospective relations between depressive and PWB were not identified. Gender and racial/ethnic identities did not moderate findings.