Depressive symptom trajectories and their gender differences in adolescents from multicultural families in South Korea: an ecological perspective

ABSTRACT This study examines the depressive symptom trajectories in middle-school adolescents from multicultural families in South Korea and explores their predictors from the ecological systems perspective. Using the latent growth model, we analysed a sample from the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Survey (2014–2016). Our findings revealed that depressive symptoms increased persistently with age. Girls presented a systematically higher risk of depressive symptoms than boys. Family support, two-parent families, parental monitoring, learning, friendships, positive perceptions about the residential area, and good health reduced depressive symptoms. Parental neglect, bullying, parental involvement in children’s grade, and acculturative stress increased depressive symptoms.