Adolescent females are at elevated risk for the development of depression. In this study, we addressed two questions: Are pubertal hormones associated with adolescent mental health? Might this association depend on pubertal development? We tested the hypothesis that estradiol, which has been associated with adolescent social sensitivity, might interact with pubertal stage to predict depression risk at three time points in ninth and tenth grade. Hormones and pubertal development were measured ninth-grade females. Linear regression analyses were used to predict fall ninth-grade (N = 79), spring ninth-grade (N = 76), and spring tenth-grade (N = 67) Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) scores. The hypothesized model was not statistically significant, but exploratory analyses revealed that two- and three-way interactions incorporating estradiol, puberty (stage and perceived onset), and cortisol predicted current and future CDI scores. Our exploratory model did not predict changes in CDI but did account for future (spring of ninth grade) CDI scores. Specifically, estradiol was positively correlated with fall and spring ninth-grade depressive symptoms in participants with high cortisol who also reported earlier stages and later perceived onset of pubertal development. These findings suggest that hormones associated with sensitivity to the social environment deserve consideration in models of adolescent depression risk.

青春期女性患抑郁症的风险较高。在这项研究中，我们解决了两个问题：青春期激素是否与青少年心理健康有关？这种关联可能取决于青春期发育吗？我们检验了与青少年社会敏感性相关的雌二醇可能与青春期相互作用以预测九年级和十年级三个时间点的抑郁风险的假设。九年级女性测量激素和青春期发育。线性回归分析用于预测秋季九年级（N = 79）、春季九年级（N = 76）和春季十年级（N= 67) 儿童抑郁量表 (CDI) 分数。假设的模型没有统计学意义，但探索性分析表明，结合雌二醇、青春期（阶段和感知开始）和皮质醇的二元和三元相互作用预测了当前和未来的 CDI 评分。我们的探索性模型没有预测CDI 的变化，但确实考虑了未来（九年级春季）的 CDI 分数。具体来说，雌二醇与高皮质醇参与者的秋季和春季九级抑郁症状呈正相关，这些参与者还报告了早期阶段和后来感知到的青春期发育开始。这些研究结果表明，与对社会环境敏感性相关的激素在青少年抑郁风险模型中值得考虑。