Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
Home> Volumes> Volume CHR Vol.88> Article
Research Article

Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents Aged 12–18: Developmental Pathways, Comorbidity, and Integrated Interventions

Zhixuan HuSociology University of Birmingham*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

The current paper explores the evolution and the comorbidity of anxiety and depression in the age group of 12 to 18-year-old adolescents. Based on the developmental psychopathology, it will look at the role of genetic vulnerability, personality (e.g., neuroticism), and environmental factors, e.g., parenting style, academic pressures, and social media influence play in these conditions. The study identifies the age variation in the manifestation of the symptoms such as somatic complaints in anxiety and cognitive distortion in depression. There is special emphasis on the sizeable role of peer relationships which may also serve as protective or risk factors. Anxiety and depression co-occurrence has high frequencies studied using Tripartite Model which focuses on common risk mechanisms. Low cost intervision, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, group therapy and emerging low-cost interventions are discussed with regards to their effectiveness in the treatment of both disorders concurrently. The results lend credence to the idea of coordinated and developmentally congruent assessment and intervention methods, and encourage future long-term studies that would assess long-term treatment behaviors.

Keywords: Anxiety Depression Comorbidity; Developmental psychopathology; Peer relationships; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Social media influence
Published: October 14, 2025
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2025.HT28140
Volume: CHR Vol.88
pp. 95-104
Download PDF

References

  1. Radez J., Waite P., Chorpita B., Creswell C., Orchard F., Percy R., Spence S., Reardon T.: Using the 11-item version of the RCADS to identify anxiety and depressive disorders in adolescents. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology 49, 1241–1257 (2020)
  2. Siegel R. S., Dickstein D.: Anxiety in adolescents: Update on its diagnosis and treatment for primary care providers. Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics 3, 1–16 (2011)
  3. Schacter H., Marusak H., Borg B., Jovanović T.: Facing ambiguity: Social threat sensitivity mediates the association between peer victimization and adolescent anxiety. Development and Psychopathology 1–9 (2022)
  4. Yoon S. H., Maguire-Jack K., Ploss A., Benavidez J. L., Chang Y.: Contextual factors of child behavioral health across developmental stages. Development and Psychopathology 1–14 (2023)
  5. Gómez-Baya D., Salinas-Pérez J., Sánchez-López Á., Paíno-Quesada S., Mendoza-Berjano R.: The role of developmental assets in gender differences in anxiety in Spanish youth. Frontiers in Psychiatry 13 (2022)
  6. Blom E. H., Bech P., Högberg G., Larsson J., Serlachius E.: Screening for depressed mood in an adolescent psychiatric context by brief self-assessment scales – testing psychometric validity of WHO-5 and BDI-6 indices by latent trait analyses. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 10, 149 (2012)
  7. Voultsos P., Tsamadou E., Demertzi E.: Clinical characteristics of outpatient adolescents undergoing ongoing psychotherapy in a Greek tertiary hospital from June 2016 to December 2019. The Archives of Psychiatry (2023)
  8. Iniewicz G.: The specific features of adolescent depression – from developmental reaction to clinical syndrome. Polish Psychological Bulletin 39, 154–157 (2008)
  9. Thapaliya B., Ray B., Farahdel B., Suresh P., Sapkota R., Holla B., Mahadevan J., Chen J., Vaidya N., Perrone-Bizzozero N., Benegal V., Schumann G., Calhoun V., Liu J.: Cross-continental environmental and genome-wide association study on children and adolescent anxiety and depression. medRxiv (2023)
  10. Skaug E., Waaktaar T., Torgersen S.: The relationship between personality throughout adolescence and social anxiety disorder in young adulthood: A longitudinal twin study. PLOS ONE 19 (2024)
  11. Nguyen T. T.: Personality traits and anxiety disorders of Vietnamese early adolescents: The mediating role of social support and self-esteem. The Open Psychology Journal (2023)
  12. Güney C., Aktan Z., Yardimci E.: An assessment of the moderator effect of personality traits on the relationship between body image and social anxiety. Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry & Psychology (2020)
  13. Marín Andrés M., García Romero R., Puga González B., Ros Arnal I., González Pérez J. M., Gutiérrez Sánchez A. M.: Study of personality and anxiety in children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease. Andes Pediatrica: Revista Chilena de Pediatria 92(2), 241–249 (2021)
  14. Choong M.: The effect of parenting styles on development of adolescent's social anxiety. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences (2023)
  15. Sun L., Li A., Chen M., Li L., Zhao Y., Zhu A., Hu P.: Mediating and moderating effects of authoritative parenting styles on adolescent behavioral problems. Frontiers in Psychology 15, Article 1336354 (2024)
  16. Van Petegem S., Albert Sznitman G., Darwiche J., Zimmermann G.: Putting parental overprotection into a family systems context: Relations of overprotective parenting with perceived coparenting and adolescent anxiety. Family Process 60(3) (2021)
  17. Xu T., Li Z.: One-way or two-way arrow?: A bidirectional relationship between adolescent's social media use and peer pressure and the gender difference. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media (2024)
  18. Hong J., Kim D., Kim Y. K., Park J. H.: Influence of peer body shape norm and peer pressure related to body shape on social media on body image over-distortion of early adolescent girls. Human Ecology Research (2024)
  19. Xu X., Han W., Liu Q.: Peer pressure and adolescent mobile social media addiction: Moderation analysis of self-esteem and self-concept clarity. Frontiers in Public Health 11, Article 1115661 (2023)
  20. Fedko I., Hottenga J., Helmer Q., Mbarek H., Huider F., Amin N., Beulens J., Bremmer M., Elders P., Galesloot T., Kiemeney L., van Loo H. M., Picavet H., Rutters F., van der Spek A., van der Wiel A., Duijn C., de Geus E., Feskens E., Bot M.: Measurement and genetic architecture of lifetime depression in the Netherlands as assessed by LIDAS (Lifetime Depression Assessment Self-report). Psychological Medicine 51, 1345–1354 (2020)
  21. Morand-Beaulieu S., Banica I., Freeman C., Ethridge P., Sandre A., Weinberg A.: Neural response to errors among mothers with a history of recurrent depression and their adolescent daughters. Development and Psychopathology 1–15 (2024)
  22. Bessette K. L., Burkhouse K. L., Langenecker S.: An interactive developmental neuroscience perspective on adolescent resilience to familial depression. JAMA Psychiatry 75(5), 503–504 (2018)
  23. Espinosa F., Martín-Romero N., Sánchez-López Á.: Repetitive negative thinking processes account for gender differences in depression and anxiety during adolescence. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy 15, 115–133 (2022)
  24. Bell I., Marx W., Nguyen K., Grace S. A., Gleeson J., Alvarez-Jimenez M.: The effect of psychological treatment on repetitive negative thinking in youth depression and anxiety: A meta-analysis and meta-regression. Psychological Medicine 53, 6–16 (2022)
  25. Wang Y., Zhang S., Liu X., Shi H., Deng X.: Differences in central symptoms of anxiety and depression between college students with different academic performance: A network analysis. Frontiers in Psychology 14, Article 1071936 (2023)
  26. Liu W., Zhang R., Wang H., Rule A., Wang M., Abbey C., Singh M. K., Rozelle S., She X., Tong L.: Association between anxiety, depression symptoms, and academic burnout among Chinese students: The mediating role of resilience and self-efficacy. BMC Psychology 12 (2024)
  27. Damiano R., de Oliveira I. N., Ezequiel O. D. S., Lucchetti A. L., Lucchetti G.: The root of the problem: Identifying major sources of stress in Brazilian medical students and developing the Medical Student Stress Factor Scale. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry 43, 35–42 (2020)
  28. Glickman E. A., Choi K. W., Lussier A., Smith B. J., Dunn E.: Childhood emotional neglect and adolescent depression: Assessing the protective role of peer social support in a longitudinal birth cohort. Frontiers in Psychiatry 12, Article 681176 (2021)
  29. Yetim O., Çakır R., Bülbül E., Alleil İ. S.: Peer relationships, adolescent anxiety, and life satisfaction: A moderated mediation model in Turkish and Syrian samples. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 33, 2831–2845 (2024)
  30. Lee T. H., Liu H. C., Huang Y. H., Sun F., Liu S. I.: How impulsivity is associated with adolescent depression: The role of substance use, gender and social support. Psychology Research and Behavior Management 16, 4959–4970 (2023)
  31. Sumbe A., Wilkinson A., Clendennen S., Bataineh B. S., Sterling K., Chen B., Harrell M.: Association of tobacco and marijuana use with symptoms of depression and anxiety among adolescents and young adults in Texas. Tobacco Prevention & Cessation 8 (2022)
  32. Sánchez Hernández M. O., Carrasco M., Holgado-Tello F. P.: Anxiety and depression symptoms in Spanish children and adolescents: An exploration of comorbidity from the network perspective. Child Psychiatry and Human Development 54, 736–749 (2021)
  33. Xie Y., Tang L.: The symptom network of internet gaming addiction, depression, and anxiety among children and adolescents. Scientific Reports 14, Article 11607465 (2024)
  34. Konac D., Young K., Lau J., Barker E.: Comorbidity between depression and anxiety in adolescents: Bridge symptoms and relevance of risk and protective factors. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 43, 583–596 (2021)
  35. Bangun S.: The effectiveness of group psychotherapy on reducing anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents. Surabaya Journal of Psychiatry (2022)
  36. Reitegger F., Peras I., Wright M., Gasteiger-Klicpera B.: Key components and content of effective evidence-based digital prevention programs for anxiety and depression in children and adolescents: A systematic umbrella review. Adolescent Research Review (2024)
  37. Kacmarek C. N., Johnson N. E., Osborn T., Wasanga C., Weisz J., Yates B.: Costs and cost-effectiveness of Shamiri, a brief, layperson-delivered intervention for Kenyan adolescents: A randomized controlled trial. BMC Health Services Research 23 (2023)