Citation

Leppert KA, Bufferd SJ, Olino TM, Dougherty LR. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 2019; 47(9): 1547-1558.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA. ldougher@umd.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10802-019-00535-4

PMID

30911869

Abstract

Depressive disorders can be observed in early childhood and are associated with significant concurrent and prospective impairment; however, little is known about day-to-day variations in common depressive behaviors in children. This study examined the day-to-day variability of two common depressive behaviors in preschool-aged children, sadness and irritability, and factors associated with the daily occurrence of these behaviors. Participants included 291 parents of preschool-aged children, and parents completed a 14-day daily diary.

RESULTS indicated that sleep quality did not prospectively predict next-day sadness or irritability the following day. We observed between-person stability, but within-person variability, in children's sadness and irritability across 14 days. We observed greater between-person stability and greater within-person variability in sadness and irritability for males and for children with fewer baseline psychiatric symptoms and lower baseline impairment.

FINDINGS provide a developmental perspective on normative patterns of sadness and irritability in young children and can inform prevention and individualized intervention efforts to reduce negative sequelae in at-risk preschoolers.

Language: en

Keywords

Daily diary; Depression; Irritability; Preschool; Sleep quality; Stability