Perfectionism and negative repetitive thoughts: Examining a multiple mediator model in relation to mindfulness

Perfectionism is known to be associated with various maladaptive outcomes, yet little research has examined mechanisms underlying perfectionism or potential protective factors. This study investigated worry and rumination as mediators between perfectionism and psychological distress in university students (N = 213), and related the multiple mediator model to a five-facet conceptualization of mindfulness. Socially prescribed perfectionism was related to higher levels of distress, including negative affect, depression, anxiety, and stress, while self-oriented perfectionism and other-oriented perfectionism appeared unrelated to distress. Mindfulness facets of acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experience, and to a lesser extent non-reactivity to inner experience, were the strongest independent contributors to perfectionism, negative repetitive thoughts, and distress. Worry and rumination mediated the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and negative affect; however, the mediating effect of rumination was absent in those high in mindfulness. These findings suggest that a mindfulness disposition may mitigate distress related to socially prescribed perfectionism by removing the mediating effect of ruminative thought. Future research might explore a mindfulness-training program to target negative repetitive thoughts underlying socially prescribed perfectionism.     

青少年的乐观与创伤后成长的关系:希望与反刍的中介作用

采用创伤暴露程度问卷、乐观问卷、希望问卷、反刍问卷和创伤后成长问卷,以雅安地震2.5年后的416名中学生为被试,考察其乐观、希望、反刍与创伤后成长（PTG）之间的关系。结果发现,在控制创伤暴露程度后,雅安地震2.5年后青少年的乐观可以直接正向预测PTG,也可以经过希望来间接地正向预测PTG,还可以通过希望经主动反刍的多重中介来正向预测PTG;甚至乐观还可以通过侵入性反刍经主动反刍间接地负向预测PTG,但预测作用远小于乐观对PTG的促进作用;乐观通过希望不能经侵入性反刍对PTG发挥显著的直接和间接预测作用,且乐观还不能直接通过主动反刍促进PTG。     

Intrusive thoughts mediate the association between neuroticism and cognitive function

Although research has established a negative association between trait neuroticism and cognition, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie this relationship. We examined the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts and negative affect as potential mediators of the relationship between neuroticism and cognitive performance. We hypothesized that the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts reflects ineffective attentional control and would account for the relationship between neuroticism and cognitive performance over and above the mediating effect of negative affect. Three hundred seventeen adults (M_age = 49.43) completed a series of attention-demanding cognitive tasks as well as self-report measures of intrusive thoughts, negative affect, and neuroticism. Intrusive thoughts mediated the association between trait neuroticism and cognitive performance beyond negative affect. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts is a mechanism through which trait neuroticism influences cognitive performance.     

Repetitive Thought and Health Anxiety: Tests of Specificity

Researchers suggest that worry, rumination, and unwanted intrusive thoughts are forms of repetitive thought (RT) important to health anxiety. To better understand RT-health anxiety interrelations, four tests of specificity between these three forms of RT and health anxiety were completed in the present research using a large community sample of medically healthy adults (N = 410). Results were that worry and rumination shared particularly strong zero-order correlations with health anxiety. In addition, worry, rumination, and unwanted intrusive thoughts each shared statistically stronger zero-order correlations with health anxiety than did another form of RT (i.e., reflection). Moreover, worry, rumination, and unwanted intrusive thoughts each shared unique relations with health anxiety after accounting for negative affect. Finally, these three forms of RT each evidenced incremental validity beyond one another as they relate to health anxiety. The pattern of relations was replicated across three commonly used measures of health anxiety. Implications for the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of health anxiety are discussed.     

Perfectionism Cognitions, Rumination, and Psychological Distress

The current study examined the extent to which dimensions of perfectionism are associated with a ruminative response orientation and the experience of cognitive intrusions in response to stressful events. Our main goal was to test the hypothesis that individuals characterized by frequent automatic thoughts involving perfectionistic themes would also be characterized by a ruminative response orientation when distressed and they would report intrusive thoughts and images following the experience of a stressful event. A sample of 65 students completed several measures, including the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Response Styles Questionnaire, the Impact of Events Scale, and indices of depression and anxiety. Correlational analyses confirmed that high scores on the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory were correlated with a ruminative response orientation and the reported experience of intrusive thoughts and images following the experience of a stressful event. High levels of perfectionism cognitions, socially prescribed perfectionism, and rumination were also correlated with measures of depression and anxiety representingthe tripartite model. The results support the view that there is a salient cognitive aspect to perfectionism and the experience of frequent perfectionistic cognitions and related forms of rumination contribute to levels of psychological distress.     

Paths from core belief disruption to post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic growth among Korean undergraduates: The mediating role of rumination

The post-traumatic growth (PTG) model proposes that cognitive processing is a key mechanism that leads to growth in the aftermath of traumatic events. Building upon the PTG model, the present study examined the paths from the disruption of core beliefs to post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and PTG via intrusive and deliberate rumination. The sample includes 370 Korean undergraduate students who reported at least one highly stressful experience in their lifetime. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that disruption of core beliefs predicted PTG both directly and indirectly through multiple pathways: via deliberate rumination, intrusive rumination, and the path from intrusive to deliberate rumination. The disruption of core beliefs positively predicted PTSS only through intrusive rumination. No bivariate relationship was found between PTSS and PTG. These findings support the different roles of intrusive rumination and deliberate rumination in mediating the paths from disruption of core beliefs to PTSS and PTG. Implications and limitations of this study were discussed.     

Perceived parental depression,intrusive rumination,and internalizing problems: A three-wave longitudinal study in adolescents

Background/objectiveResearch suggests that perceiving parental depression elicits internalizing problems in adolescents, but certain studies have indicated that adolescents’ internalizing problems also increase their perception of parental emotion. To further investigate the inconsistent findings about the nature of this relationship, the current study used longitudinal data to examine the causal association between adolescents’ internalizing problems and the parental depression they perceived, as well as the role of intrusive rumination in the relationship. Method: In this longitudinal study, 392 adolescents who experienced the catastrophic Jiuzhaigou earthquake in 2017 were surveyed at three time points after the earthquake: 12 months (T1), 21 months (T2) and 27 months (T3). A cross-lagged panel model was used to carry out the data analysis. Results: Mutual cause-and-effect relationships were found between intrusive rumination and both perceived parental depression and internalizing problems, respectively; a unilateral causal relationship in which internalizing problems positively predicted perceived parental depression was also found. In addition, internalizing problems predicted perceived parental depression via the mediating role of intrusive rumination; similarly, intrusive rumination predicted perceived parental depression via internalizing problems. Conclusions: Internalizing problems were a risk factor for perceived parental depression, and intrusive rumination played an important role in the relationship between internalizing problems and perceived parental depression.     

Posttraumatic Growth in Children and Adolescents Exposed to the 2010 Earthquake in Chile and Its Relationship with Rumination and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

The aim of this study was to assess a predictive model of posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic stress symptoms in children and adolescents exposed to the earthquake in Chile in 2010. 325 children (47.4% male), aged between 10 and 15 years, were surveyed 12 months after the earthquake. The following tests were administered: the posttraumatic growth inventory for children in its brief version of Kilmer et al., the child PTSD symptom scale of Foa et al., the rumination scale for children of Crider et al., along with a scale to assess the trauma severity and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The model was assessed through a path analysis, which showed that deliberate rumination mediated the relationship between trauma severity and intrusive rumination with posttraumatic growth, that intrusive rumination mediated the relationship between the severity of the event and posttraumatic stress symptoms and that the latter mediated the relationship between intrusive rumination and posttraumatic growth. The sex was included as control variable in the path model. The final model achieved adequate fit indexes. The relevance of rumination processes for the development of the psychological consequences in children and adolescents following a natural disaster and their implications for clinical is discussed.     

Cognitive control of obsessional thoughts

A defining characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is unsuccessful suppression of unwanted thoughts. Recent evidence of individual differences in ability to control intrusive thoughts may inform our understanding of failures of cognitive control associated with OCD symptomatology. The current study investigated characteristics of cognitive style that are potentially associated with OCD symptoms and may influence response to unwanted thoughts, including perceived ability to control thoughts and tendency to ruminate. Undergraduate students (N = 166) completed self-report measures of OCD symptoms, perceived thought control, and ruminative thinking. They were then presented with a distressing target thought and completed a standard thought suppression paradigm. Correlational results indicated that, controlling for anxiety and depression, OCD symptoms were positively associated with rumination and inversely associated with perceived thought control ability. In addition, OCD symptoms were associated with higher levels of distress and greater spontaneous efforts to suppress the target thought during a baseline period, while perceived thought control ability predicted frequency of target thoughts during suppression. Finally, results of the experimental manipulation confirmed that participants instructed to suppress experienced more intrusions during the recovery period. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.     

Predicting Cognitive and Social Consequences of Emotional Episodes: The Contribution of Emotional Intensity, the Five Factor Model, and Alexithymia

Emotional events are followed by recurrent thoughts (rumination) and talking about the event (social sharing of emotion). Factors that can account for variations in these consequences were examined (emotional intensity, the Five Factor Model, and two factors of alexithymia). In two samples, participants reported the most negative emotional event of recent months and in one sample also reported the most positive one. Results indicated that emotional intensity predicted social sharing and rumination, while neuroticism was positively related to intrusive thoughts about negative events and extraversion to rumination and social sharing about positive events. Difficulty describing feelings was negatively related to social sharing for negative events and reduced fantasy to rumination for positive events.     

Gender differences in rumination: A meta-analysis

Starting in adolescence and continuing through adulthood, women are twice as likely as men to experience depression. According to the response styles theory (RST), gender differences in depression result, in part, from women’s tendency to ruminate more than men. A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate gender differences in rumination in adults (k = 59; N = 14,321); additionally, an analysis of subtypes of rumination – brooding and reflection – was conducted (k = 23). Fixed effects analyses indicated that women scored higher than men in rumination (d = .24, p < .01, SEd = .02), brooding (d = .19, p < .01, SEd = .03) and reflection (d = .17, p < .01, SEd = .03); there was no evidence of heterogeneity or publication bias across studies for these effect sizes. Although statistically significant, the effect sizes for gender differences in rumination were small in magnitude. Results are discussed with respect to the RST and gender differences in depression.     

When words and pictures come alive: Relating the modality of intrusive thoughts to modalities of hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations

Hypnagogic and hypnopompic (H&H) hallucinations are those experienced on the borders of sleep and waking. Intrusive thoughts have been proposed to relate to the occurrence of such experiences. In a sample of students (N = 299), the present study investigated the relation between auditory and felt-presence H&H experiences, and specific modalities of intrusive thought (auditory and visual) whilst controlling for age, gender, depression, anxiety and thought suppression. The psychometric properties of the Durham Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Hallucinations Questionnaire (DHQ) were also examined. Exploratory (N = 299) and, in a second sample, confirmatory (N = 502) factor analyses showed good internal and test-retest reliability for the auditory and felt-presence subscales of the DHQ, but not for the visual subscale. Regression analyses indicated that the sole predictor of auditory H&H hallucinations was intrusive auditory imagery, and the sole predictor of felt-presence H&H experiences was intrusive visual imagery. Explanations for these findings are considered and implications for future research are discussed.     

Unsuccessful suppression is associated with increased neuroticism,intrusive thoughts,and rumination

Studies of thought suppression, the reduction in accessibility for intentionally unrehearsed and actively avoided thoughts, vary dramatically in the level of suppression reported. The purpose of our research was to explore individual differences associated with self-reports of the success, failure, or avoidance of thought suppression in everyday life. Participants completed a survey measuring intrusive thoughts, neuroticism, rumination, and autobiographical knowledge of suppression tendencies and capabilities. Individuals who reported successful suppression were less neurotic, ruminative, and experienced less thought intrusion than individuals who reported unsuccessful suppression attempts. Our findings suggest that the high-ends of the neuroticism and intrusive thought spectrums are occupied by individuals who unsuccessfully attempt to suppress undesirable information, while successful suppressors differ minimally from non-suppressors.     

Rumination is characterized by valence-specific impairments in switching of attention

The ability to flexibly switch attention between emotional and non-emotional information in working memory is considered important in stress-resilience and is impaired in mood disorders. A recent theory claims that this component of attention is specifically related to ruminative thought. To further investigate this claim we report two new experiments using the internal shift task (IST). In Experiment 1 (N = 27) we examined the stability of switching ability measured using the IST through examination of internal consistency (stability within the task) and test–retest-reliability (stability over time) over two weeks. Results indicate relatively high stability of switching ability measured with the IST. In Experiment 2 the IST was administered to a pre-selected undergraduate sample of high (N = 20) and low ruminators (N = 20). The main findings were that rumination was related to attentional switching impairments, specifically in the context of emotional information. The switching impairments were most pronounced when negative information was held in working memory. The attentional switching impairments were most strongly related to the depressive brooding component of rumination. The results of this study lend further support to the proposed link between rumination and switching abilities.     

Intrusive Thoughts and Psychological Adjustment to Breast Cancer: Exploring the Moderating and Mediating Role of Global Meaning and Emotional Expressivity

The aim of this study was to investigate the moderating and mediating role of global meaning and emotional expressivity in the relationship between intrusive thoughts and psychological adjustment (as indicated by mental health status) in a sample of breast cancer patients (N = 153). Coping with cancer was also included as an intervening variable to be tested. Moderating effects were explored using a series of hierarchical regression analysis, while multiple mediated effects were tested through bootstrapping procedures. Results showed that global personal meaning had both direct and indirect (mediating) effects on psychological adjustment. Emotional expressivity had neither moderating nor mediating effects on psychological adjustment. These results indicated that a strong sense of personal meaning and purpose in life, and an integrated understanding of self and life may lessen the impact of intrusive thoughts on breast cancer patients’ psychological adjustment and mental health status. Implications of the findings for clinical practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

The Role of Metacognition in Self-Critical Rumination: An Investigation in Individuals Presenting with Low Self-Esteem

No research, to date, has directly investigated the role of metacognition in self-critical rumination and low self-esteem. The aims of this study are: to investigate the presence of metacognitive beliefs about self-critical rumination; the goal of self-critical rumination and its stop signal; and the degree of detachment from intrusive self-critical thoughts. Ten individuals reporting both a self-acknowledged tendency to judge themselves critically and having low self-esteem were assessed using metacognitive profiling, a semi-structured interview. All participants endorsed both positive and negative metacognitive beliefs about self-critical rumination. Positive metacognitive beliefs concerned the usefulness of self-critical rumination as a means of improving cognitive performance and enhancing motivation. Negative metacognitive beliefs concerned the uncontrollability of self-critical rumination and its negative impact on mood, motivation and perception of self-worth. The primary goal of engaging in self-critical rumination was to achieve a better or clearer understanding of a given trigger situation or to feel more motivated to resolve it. However, only four participants were able to identify when this goal had been achieved, which was if the trigger situation were not to occur again. Participants unanimously stated that they were either unable to detach from their self-critical thoughts or could do so some of the time with varying degrees of success. More often than not, though, self-critical thoughts were viewed as facts, would rarely be seen as distorted or biased, and could take hours or days to dissipate. These findings provide preliminary evidence that specific facets of metacognition play a role in the escalation and perseveration of self-critical rumination.     

青少年核心信念挑战对创伤后成长的影响：反刍与社会支持的作用

采用核心信念问卷、反刍问卷、社会支持问卷和创伤后成长问卷, 以汶川地震4年半后的354名中学生为被试, 考察其核心信念挑战、侵入性反刍、主动反刍、社会支持与创伤后成长之间的关系。结果发现, 地震4年半后青少年创伤后成长的整体水平较高, 其中女生高于男生, 初二学生相对低于高年级学生。结构方程模型的结果显示, 侵入性反刍和主动反刍在核心信念挑战与创伤后成长之间起部分中介作用, 核心信念挑战可以直接正向预测创伤后成长, 也可以通过侵入性反刍对创伤后成长起负向预测作用、通过主动反刍对创伤后成长起正向预测作用、通过侵入性反刍经主动反刍正向预测创伤后成长; 社会支持在侵入性反刍影响创伤后成长的直接路径上不起调节作用, 但在侵入性反刍经主动反刍对创伤后成长的间接路径上起调节作用, 具体表现为侵入性反刍对主动反刍的正向预测作用随着社会支持的增加而降低。     

Do people ruminate because they haven’t digested their goals? The relations of rumination and reflection to goal internalization and ambivalence

In three studies it was investigated whether rumination was related to less internalized self-regulation and goals and whether reflection was related to more internalized self-regulation and goals. In all studies students completed questionnaires measuring rumination, reflection, and internalization of self-regulation and goals. In Study 1, rumination was related to less internalized self-regulation, whereas reflection was related to more internalized self-regulation. In Study 2, rumination was related to less internalized self-regulation and goals as well as to more avoidance- and extrinsic content of goals. Reflection was related to more internalized self-regulation and goals as well as to less avoidance content of goals. In Study 3, goal-specific rumination was related to less internalized goals and goal-specific reflection was related to more internalized goals. Collectively, the studies suggest that internalization of self-regulation and goals is critical for distinguishing between unconstructive and constructive self-focused repetitive thoughts.     

Posttraumatic Stress,Posttraumatic Growth,and Satisfaction With Life in Military Veterans

Objective: Military veterans are more likely than civilians to experience trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research suggests, however, that some people who experience trauma, including veterans, report posttraumatic growth (PTG), or positive personal changes following adversity. In this study, we tested a comprehensive model of PTG, PTSD, and satisfaction with life in a veteran population, exploring the roles of challenges to core beliefs, types of rumination, sex, and time since event. Method: Data were collected via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing website, from veterans (N = 197) who had experienced a stressful event within the last 3 years (M = 16.66 months, SD = 12.27 months). Structural equation modeling was used to test an integrated conceptual model of PTG, PTSD, and satisfaction with life. Results: Results showed that challenge to core beliefs was directly associated with both deliberate and intrusive rumination. Deliberate rumination was positively related to PTG; intrusive rumination was positively related to symptoms of PTSD. PTG and PTSD, in turn, mediated the relationship between rumination styles and satisfaction with life; PTG was related to higher satisfaction with life; and PTSD was negatively related to satisfaction with life. Results failed to show differences on any model variables as a function of time since event or sex. Conclusion: Results indicate that the intentional facilitation of PTG may be a complementary and alternative option to the reduction of PTSD symptoms for improving satisfaction with life. Findings suggest that efforts to facilitate PTG should be focused on strategies for promoting deliberate rumination.