Impact of School Transition Stressors on Hispanic Adolescents’ Symptoms of Social Anxiety and Depression: Repetitive Negative Thinking as a Potential Mediator

Adolescents’ lives undergo considerable reorganization during school transitions, which require establishing new peer relationships and participating in more demanding academic activities. Yet, little is known about how school-transition stressors affect adolescents’ feelings of social anxiety (SA) depression, especially among Hispanic youth who are at elevated risk for dropout. We examined as predictors SA depressive symptoms evaluated whether the tendency to engage repetitive negative thinking (RNT) (e.g., worry rumination) served a transdiagnostic mediating pathway. Participants were 461 adolescents (Mage=14.22; 59% female) attending high large metropolitan area U.S., completed three surveys over year. At T1 (October), reported transition related performance, pressure, teacher interactions, school/leisure conflict, current depression. T2 (February), levels RNT. T3 (May), again Structural equation modeling associations between (T1) depression end year (T3) RNT mediated these associations, controlling gender symptoms. School performance predicted increased relationships. Furthermore, pressure Overall, youth’s functioning, may be an important target interventions reduce adolescent