Depressive symptoms and their associations with anger and aggression in Russian adolescents

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated the prevalence of clinically significant (current major depressive episode) and subthreshold depressive symptoms and explored their association with aggression and anger, while controlling for comorbid mental health problems in a general population sample of adolescents from Northern Russia. The sample consisted of 2600 participants, aged 13–17 years (59.3% female; 95.7% ethnic Russian). Symptoms of a major depressive episode, types of anger and aggression (anger rumination, trait anger, physical, verbal and social aggression) and comorbid problems (posttraumatic stress, alcohol use, anxiety, and hyperactivity/impulsivity) were assessed by means of self-reports. The prevalence of a clinically significant depressive episode in the past month was 3.5%, while for subthreshold depression it was 21.6%. All anger and aggression variables, as well as comorbid problems increased together with increasing levels of depression. When adjusting for comorbidity, depression was only significantly associated with social aggression and anger rumination. Among adolescents with depression, boys reported higher levels of social and verbal aggression and of anger rumination than girls. Overt aggressive behavior associated with depression was primarily explained by comorbid mental health problems, whereas anger rumination and social aggression had more direct associations with depression, independent of comorbidity and were gender-specific. The results of this study suggest that interventions aiming to reduce aggressive behavior in adolescents should consider depression and its comorbid conditions.