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The relationship between cognitive ability and depression: a longitudinal data analysis

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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

There is literature indicating cognitive ability and depression are related, but few studies have examined the direction of the relationship. This study examined the relationship between depression levels and cognitive abilities from adolescence to early adulthood.

Methods

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 14,322), this study used path modeling to investigate the relationship between depression and cognitive ability at baseline and again 8 years later.

Results

After controlling for initial levels of depression, cognitive ability, and other covariates, depressive symptoms in adolescence are related to cognitive ability in early adulthood, but adolescent cognitive ability is not related to adult depression levels. Moreover, after controlling for adolescent levels of depression and cognitive ability, the cognitive ability–depression relationship disappears in adulthood.

Conclusions

The cognitive ability–depression relationship appears early in life, and it is likely that the presence of depressive symptoms leads to lower cognitive ability. Thus, intervening at early signs of depression not only can help alleviate depression, but will likely have an effect of cognitive ability as well.

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Acknowledgments

The first and second authors were supported by Award Number R03HD058464 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development or the National Institutes of Health. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a Grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu). No direct support was received from Grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Educational Psychology, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97301, Waco, TX, 76798-7301, USA

    A. Alexander Beaujean, Sonia Parker & Xiao Qiu

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  1. A. Alexander Beaujean
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  2. Sonia Parker
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Correspondence to A. Alexander Beaujean.

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Beaujean, A.A., Parker, S. & Qiu, X. The relationship between cognitive ability and depression: a longitudinal data analysis. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 48, 1983–1992 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0668-0

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