Highs and lows: Naturalistic changes in mood and everyday hassles over school and vacation periods in adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated changes in adolescents' mood and everyday hassles across school-terms and vacation periods. 146 (52.7% female) community-dwelling adolescents aged 16.2 ± 1.0 years (M±SD) completed self-report measures on depression, anxiety, and everyday hassles at four time points: during a school vacation, and the start, middle, and end of school-terms. Latent growth modeling showed that the end of a school-term was associated with significantly higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hassles; these measures were lower during the vacation. Hassles were strongly associated with more negative mood at all times. Our findings suggest significant fluctuations in adolescent mood and ..