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A 10-year prospective-longitudinal study of daily hassles and incident psychopathology among adolescents and young adults: interactions with gender, perceived coping efficacy, and negative life events

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Abstract

Purpose

To prospectively examine whether higher daily hassles predict a variety of incident mental disorders and respective associations vary by gender, age, perceived coping efficacy and number of negative life events.

Methods

Data comes from the Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology Study (EDSP), a prospective-longitudinal study among adolescents and young adults from the community (n = 2797, aged 14–24 at baseline) followed up in up to 3 assessment waves over 10 years. Mental disorders were assessed at each wave using the DSM-IV/M-CIDI. Daily hassles, perceived coping efficacy, and negative life events were assessed at baseline using the Daily Hassles Scale, Scale for Self-Control and Coping Skills, and Munich Life Event List.

Results

In logistic regressions adjusted for gender, age, other mental disorders, perceived coping efficacy and number of negative life events at baseline, higher daily hassles at baseline predicted the incidence of any anxiety disorder, specific phobia, obsessive–compulsive disorder, any affective disorder, and major depressive episodes at follow-up (OR 1.2–1.9 per standard deviation). Daily hassles interacted with perceived coping efficacy at baseline in predicting incident panic attacks (OR 1.3) and panic disorder (OR 1.3) at follow-up, i.e., higher daily hassles only predicted incident panic pathology among individuals with low perceived coping efficacy (OR 1.6–2.0) but not high perceived coping efficacy. Moreover, the associations between daily hassles and incident mental disorders partially varied by gender and age but not by negative life events at baseline.

Conclusions

Targeted stress management interventions among individuals with increased daily hassles might be useful to prevent the onset of anxiety and affective disorders.

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Acknowledgements

Principal investigators are Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wittchen and Dr. Roselind Lieb. Core staff members of the EDSP group are: Dr. Kirsten von Sydow, Dr. Gabriele Lachner, Dr. Axel Perkonigg, Dr. Peter Schuster, Dr. Michael Höfler, Dipl.-Psych. Holger Sonntag, Dr. Tanja Brückl, Dipl.-Psych. Elzbieta Garczynski, Dr. Barbara Isensee, Dr. Agnes Nocon, Dr. Chris Nelson, Dipl.-Inf. Hildegard Pfister, Dr. Victoria Reed, Dipl.-Soz. Barbara Spiegel, Dr. Andrea Schreier, Dr. Ursula Wunderlich, Dr. Petra Zimmermann, Dr. Katja Beesdo-Baum, Dr. Antje Bittner, Dr. Silke Behrendt, and Dr. Susanne Knappe. Scientific advisors are Dr. Jules Angst (Zurich), Dr. Jürgen Margraf (Basel), Dr. Günther Esser (Potsdam), Dr. Kathleen Merikangas (NIMH, Bethesda), Dr. Ron Kessler (Harvard, Boston), and Dr. Jim van Os (Maastricht).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Chemnitzer Str. 46, 01187, Dresden, Germany

    Eva Asselmann, Hans-Ulrich Wittchen & Katja Beesdo-Baum

  2. Behavioral Epidemiology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Eva Asselmann & Katja Beesdo-Baum

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Hans-Ulrich Wittchen

  4. Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany

    Roselind Lieb

  5. Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Roselind Lieb

Authors
  1. Eva Asselmann
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  2. Hans-Ulrich Wittchen
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  4. Katja Beesdo-Baum
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eva Asselmann.

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Financial support

This work is part of the Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology Study (EDSP) and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) project no. 01EB9405/6, 01EB9901/6, EB01016200, 01EB0140, and 01EB0440. Part of the field work and analyses were also additionally supported by grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) LA1148/1-1, WI2246/1-1, WI 709/7-1, and WI 709/8-1. The senior author (KBB) currently holds a research professorship funded by the BMBF (01ER1303).

Conflict of interest

Dr. Wittchen reports the following items that might be perceived as a potential conflict of interest: Dr. Wittchen is on the advisory board and has received grant support to his institution by Lundbeck. All other authors declare that they have no financial relationships that might be perceived as a potential conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

The study has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments and has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of the Technische Universität Dresden (No: EK-13811).

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Asselmann, E., Wittchen, HU., Lieb, R. et al. A 10-year prospective-longitudinal study of daily hassles and incident psychopathology among adolescents and young adults: interactions with gender, perceived coping efficacy, and negative life events. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 52, 1353–1362 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1436-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1436-3

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