Depressive symptoms and emotion regulation strategies in children with and without developmental language disorder: a longitudinal study
Open accessAbstract
Background: Depressive symptoms are common in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). However, risk and protective factors contributing to these problems are currently underspecified. Aims: The current longitudinal study examined the role of emotion‐regulation (ER) strategies in the severity of depressive symptoms in children with and without DLD, taking into account the severity of communication problems of children with DLD. Methods & Procedures: We followed clinically referred children with DLD ( n = 114, 49% girls) and without DLD ( n = 214, 58% girls) between the ages of 8 and 16 years across an 18‐month period. Participants completed self‐report questionnaires at three time points. Parents of children with DLD reported on their child's communication problems. Outcomes & Results: Multilevel analyses confirmed higher levels of depressive symptoms in youngsters with DLD compared with peers without DLD, with a decrease across time in the DLD group. In both groups, higher levels of approach and increasing avoidant strategies aimed at distraction or trivializing a problem explained lower depressive symptoms, whereas more worry and externalizing strategies contributed to more depressive symptoms. Within the DLD group, semantic language problems were associated with higher depressive symptoms. However, this relation was mediated by the tendency to worry or use externalizing strategies. Conclusions & Implications: Results suggest that interventions for children with DLD should focus on enhancing their adaptive ER strategies to help them cope with daily stressors just as in the general population.
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Children with language difficulties are more likely to experience other socio-emotional and behavioral difficulties, even in adolescence and adulthood.
“Children with language difficulties are more likely to experience other socio-emotional and behavioral difficulties, even in adolescence and adulthood.”
From Tracking Acquisition of Language in Kids (TALK) study protocol: A longitudinal investigation of infants at high vs. low risk for atypical speech and language development (2026) · cites this paper as [71]
The Introduction reports elevated depressive symptoms in children with developmental language disorder, including during adolescence. The Discussion describes social difficulties in children and notes that depressive symptoms can increase again in young adulthood. The paper does not establish that the broader range of socio-emotional and behavioral difficulties remains more likely in adulthood. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThese difficulties include anxiety, social phobia, ADHD, and depression.
“These include anxiety, social phobia, ADHD, and depression [68–71]”
From Tracking Acquisition of Language in Kids (TALK) study protocol: A longitudinal investigation of infants at high vs. low risk for atypical speech and language development (2026) · cites this paper as [71]
The Results (Preliminary analyses; page unavailable) report higher depressive symptoms in children with developmental language disorder than in children without it. The paper does not establish the other listed difficulties—anxiety, social phobia, or ADHD—as findings about these children, so it supports only the depression part of the cited sentence. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Sorted by citations
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- Authors
- van den Bedem, N. P., Dockrell, J. E., van Alphen, P. M., de Rooij, M., Samson, A. C., Harjunen, E. L., & Rieffe, C.
- Affiliations
- Institute of Psychology Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands
- University College London (GB)
- Royal Dutch Kentalis Sint‐Michielsgestel The Netherlands
- University of Geneva (CH)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- Leiden University (NL)
- Venue
- International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-08-23
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1110-1123
- ISSN
- 1368-2822 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-6984
- PMC
- PMC6282613
- OpenAlex
- W2888408366
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 6.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (publishedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (452‐07‐004)
- Fonds NutsOhra (1303‐049)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- specific language impairment, depressive symptoms, emotion regulation strategies, children, worry, approach strategies, communication difficulties, mediation, longitudinal development
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Child, Depression, Female, Humans, Language Development Disorders, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Risk Factors, Case-Control Studies, Self Report
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