(PS4-A6) Working Memory Functioning Prospectively Predicts Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent Girls

Background: Depression is a pervasive, chronic, and disabling condition that often emerges in adolescence and persists into adulthood. In addition to low mood and anhedonia, depressive disorders frequently feature impairments across multiple cognitive domains, including working memory. Cognitive deficits tend to lead to poorer functional outcomes, including worse treatment response, higher risk of relapse, and impaired coping skills, with working memory deficits specifically associated with impairment in daily life activities like academic/occupational performance and driving. However, it remains unclear whether these deficits are a risk factor for, or a consequence of, depression. Much of the research exploring the relationship between cognitive functioning and depression is cross-sectional and targets an adult, or even geriatric, population, despite a high prevalence of both subclinical symptoms and full-blown depressive disorders amongst adolescents. As such, prospective research focusing on cognitive functioning and depression in adolescents is paramount to understanding the nature of this relationship. The present study utilized a longitudinal design to determine whether working memory impairments are predicted by or predictive of depressive symptoms in adolescents.

Methods: To examine these relationships, depressive symptoms using the Children’s Depressive Inventory and working memory using the Digit Span were annually assessed in 443 adolescents (ages 12-15 at baseline, 51% female, 48% Black, 48% White, 3.6% Asian) over 10 years. Multilevel models were estimated to prospectively evaluate the main effects of working memory, gender, and socioeconomic status on depressive symptoms, and test whether gender moderated the association between working memory and depressive symptoms.

Results: Results indicated that baseline working memory prospectively predicted depression scores (B = -0.19, SE = 0.08, p = 0.02). Further analysis revealed gender as a significant moderator, with working memory prospectively predicting depression scores specifically in girls (B = -0.39, SE = 0.16, p = 0.02). 

Conclusions: Working memory functioning at baseline prospectively predicted depressive symptoms in adolescent girls, but not boys. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that working memory impairment is a risk factor for future depression in adolescent girls. These findings are in line with prior work suggesting that there are stronger pathways to depression via cognitive deficits for girls than boys. It is possible that variables such as pubertal development and brain maturation, which vary between adolescent girls and boys, may partially account for this difference. Working memory may therefore provide a promising avenue of intervention for adolescent girls.