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Background

Internalizing disorders impose a staggering burden on public health. Existing interventions are inconsistently effective, underscoring the need to understand the mechanisms that confer risk. Neuroticism/negative emotionality (N/NE) is a well-established risk factor for future anxiety and depression diagnoses. Yet, the neural systems and real-world psychological processes underlying these prospective-longitudinal trajectories remain unclear.

Methods

We addressed these questions using a novel combination of data—including threat-anticipation and emotional-face fMRI paradigms and repeated waves of smartphone experience-sampling and internalizing symptom assessments—acquired from an ethnoracially diverse, risk-enriched sample of emerging adults followed for 2.5 years (n= 217-220; ps<. 05).

Results

Robust GLM analyses demonstrated that elevated baseline N/NE was associated with …