Symptom centrality and infrequency of endorsement identify adolescent depression symptoms more strongly associated with life satisfaction

Although depression symptoms are often treated as interchangeable, some may relate to adolescent life satisfaction more strongly than others. To assess this premise, we first conducted a network analysis on the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) in large (N = 1,059), cross-sectional sample of community adolescents (age M 14.72 ± 1.79). The most central depression, indexed by strength, were self-hatred, loneliness, sadness, worthlessness while least frequently endorsed anhedonia, feeling like bad person, unloved. Moreover, symptom was (i.e., higher strength), variance it shared with (r 0.59, 95% CI: 0.27, 0.76). How negatively associated -0.48, -0.63, -0.21). Cross-validated, prediction focused models found expected predict out fold peripheral symptoms, but not symptoms. These findings show certain be adolescence these can identified multiple symptom-level metrics. Limitations include use data utilizing sample. Better understanding which share important outcomes could help us develop fine-grained depression.