Depressive symptoms and emotion regulation strategies in children with and without developmental language disorder: a longitudinal study.
Neeltje P van den Bedem, Julie E Dockrell, Petra M van Alphen and 4 others
PMID 30141224WHAT IT FOUND
Children with DLD had more depressive symptoms over 18 months.
In both groups, trying to solve problems and less worry or outbursts were linked to fewer symptoms. Word-meaning problems related to symptoms through worry and outbursts.
Key findings
01Children with DLD reported higher depressive symptoms than children without DLD, and symptoms showed a small decrease across time for children with DLD but not for peers.
02For children with and without DLD, more approach strategies and less worry or externalizing were associated with fewer depressive symptoms; increasing avoidant strategies and decreasing worry across time also explained decreasing symptoms.
03Within the DLD group, more word-meaning problems predicted more depressive symptoms, but this link was mediated by worry and externalizing strategies.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study relied on child self-report for depression and emotion regulation, and parent report for communication problems; it did not include observational or clinician-rated outcomes. It did not include children already within the clinical range for depression, so it may not apply to children with diagnosed depression. Many children missed at least one visit, especially children without DLD, and those who missed visits lived in lower SES neighbourhoods and reported less externalizing, which could bias the comparison group. The study was observational, so it cannot show that emotion regulation causes depressive symptoms or that improving emotion regulation will reduce them. Externalizing strategy change could not be analysed across all three time points for children without DLD because the measure was missing at Time 3.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not report a funding or conflict-of-interest statement. The publication type notes research support from a non-U.S. government source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the associations as proof that worry or outbursts cause depression, or that emotion regulation training will reduce it. The study did not assign treatments, and children with DLD still had more symptoms after emotion regulation was accounted for.