Volume 31, Issue 1 pp. 85-103
Research Article

Why Does Frustration Predict Psychopathology? Multiple Prospective Pathways Over Adolescence: A TRAILS Study

Bertus F. Jeronimus

Corresponding Author

Bertus F. Jeronimus

Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE), Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Correspondence to: Bertus Jeronimus, Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, The Netherlands.

E-mail: [email protected]

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Harriëtte Riese

Harriëtte Riese

Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE), Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

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Albertine J. Oldehinkel

Albertine J. Oldehinkel

Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE), Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

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Johan Ormel

Johan Ormel

Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE), Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

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First published: 14 December 2016
Citations: 10

Abstract

Adolescents' temperamental frustration is a developmental precursor of adult neuroticism and psychopathology. Because the mechanisms that underlie the prospective association between adolescents' high frustration and psychopathology (internalizing/externalizing) have not been studied extensively, we quantified three pathways: stress generation [mediation via selection/evocation of stressful life events (SLEs)], cross-sectional frustration-psychopathology overlap (‘carry-over’/common causes), and a direct (non-mediated) vulnerability effect of frustration, including moderation of SLE impact. Frustration and psychopathology were assessed at age 16 with the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire and the Youth Self-Report. No gender differences in frustration were observed. At age 19, psychopathology was reassessed by using the Adult Self-Report, while occurrence of endogenous (self-generated) and exogenous (not self-generated) SLEs during the interval (ages 16–19) were ascertained with the Life Stress Interview, an investigator-based contextual-stressfulness rating procedure (N = 957). Half of the prospective effect of frustration on psychopathology was explained by baseline overlap, including effects of ‘carry-over’ and common causes, about 5% reflected stress generation (a ‘vicious’ cycle with the environment adolescents navigate and shape), and 45% reflected unmediated association: a direct vulnerability effect including stress sensitivity or moderation of SLE impact. After adjustment for their overlap, frustration predicted the development of externalizing but not internalizing symptoms. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

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