Neuroticism,Life Events and Negative Thoughts in the Development of Depression in Adolescent Girls

Theories of depression suggest that cognitive and environmental factors may explain the relationship between personality and depression. This study tested such a model in early adolescence, incorporating neuroticism, stress-generation and negative automatic thoughts in the development of depressive symptoms. Participants (896 girls, mean age 12.3 years) completed measures of personality and depressive symptoms, and 12 months later completed measures of depressive symptoms, recent stressors and negative automatic thoughts. Path analysis supported a model in which neuroticism serves as a distal vulnerability for depression, conferring a risk of experiencing dependent negative events and negative automatic thoughts, which fully mediate the effect of neuroticism on later depression. A second path supported a maintenance model for depression in adolescence, with initial levels of depression predicting dependent negative events, negative automatic thoughts and subsequent depressive symptoms. Unexpectedly, initial depression was also associated with later independent life events. This study establishes potential mechanisms through which personality contributes to the development of depression in adolescent girls.     

Self-referential schemas and attentional bias predict severity and naturalistic course of depression symptoms

Attentional bias and self-referential schemas have been observed in numerous cross-sectional studies of depressed adults and are theorised to maintain negative mood. However, few longitudinal studies have examined whether maladaptive cognition predicts the course of depressive symptoms. Fifty-seven adults with elevated depression symptoms were assessed for negative attentional bias using a dot-probe task with eye-tracking and self-referential schemas using a self-referent encoding task. Participants subsequently completed five weekly depression symptom assessments. Participants with more negative self-referential schemas had higher baseline depression symptoms (r?=?.55). However, participants who spent more time attending to negative words showed greater symptom worsening over time (r?=?.42). The findings for negative self-referential schemas replicate past research, while the findings for negative attention bias represent the first evidence showing that attentional biases predict naturalistic symptom course. This work suggests that negative attention biases maintain depression symptoms and represent an important treatment target for neurocognitive therapeutics.     

Transactional Relationships among Cognitive Vulnerabilities, Stressors, and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence

The transactional cognitive vulnerability to stress model Hankin & Abramson (Psychological Bulletin, 127:773–796, 2001) extends the traditional diathesis-stress model by proposing that the relationships among cognitions, depressive symptoms, and stressors are dynamic and bidirectional. In this study three different pathways among these variables were assessed simultaneously: (1) cognitive vulnerabilities and stressors as predictors of depressive symptoms (vulnerability model), (2) depressive symptoms and cognitive vulnerabilities as predictors of stressors (stress generation model), and (3) depressive symptoms and stressors as predictors of cognitive vulnerabilities (consequence model). A fully cross-lagged design panel was employed with 1,187 adolescents (545 girls and 642 boys, Mean Age?=?13.42 years) who were assessed at two time points separated by 6 months. They completed measures of cognitive vulnerabilities (maladaptive schema domains and negative inferential style), stressors, and depressive symptoms. Inferential style and schemas of the disconnection and rejection domain predicted prospective increases in depressive symptoms. Initial levels of depressive symptoms and most cognitive vulnerabilities predicted greater stress generation. Initial levels of stressors and depressive symptoms predicted an increase in negative inferential style and maladaptive schema domains over time. These bidirectional relationships were mostly similar for boys and girls, although there were a few gender differences. The findings support a transactional model with reciprocal relationships among stress, depressive symptoms, and cognitive vulnerabilities. Transactional implications for depression interventions among adolescents are discussed.     

Longitudinal evaluation of anhedonia as a mediator of fear of positive evaluation and other depressive symptoms

ABSTRACT

Fear of positive evaluation (FPE) is experiencing dread during real or potential praise. FPE is associated with social anxiety, but its relation to depressive symptoms is unclear. Anhedonia is a core symptom of depression related to symptoms of anxiety in cross-sectional research. The current study investigated the indirect effect of FPE on depressive symptoms via anhedonia over time. One-hundred ninety-six participants completed three waves of questionnaires over a total timespan of approximately four months via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, including measures of FPE, depressive symptoms, and anticipatory and consummatory anhedonia. Findings indicated that anticipatory anhedonia at Time 2 mediated the relationship between FPE at Time 1 and depressive symptoms at Time 3. Consummatory anhedonia, however, did not. Each model was contextualised by accounting for prospective covarying relationships, such as depressive symptoms predicting the same symptoms at later waves. The constellation of findings is considered within a reward devaluation framework.     

Self-schemas and risk for depression: a prospective study

The role of depressive self-schemas in vulnerability to depression was explored in a longitudinal design. Five groups of subjects hypothesized to be at differential risk for depression according to a schema model were identified: depressed schematic, depressed nonschematic, nondepressed schematic, nondepressed nonschematic, and a psychopathology control. They were followed regularly for 4 months with self-report and clinical interview measures of depression. There was no evidence of risk for depression associated with schema status apart from initial mood and no interaction of life stress events and schemas. In a second experiment with the same subjects, it was shown that depressive self-schemas do not exert an ongoing, active influence on everyday information processing; instead current mood affected information processing. Remitted depressed persons resembled nondepressed rather than depressed ones. The results support Kuiper and colleagues' distinction between concomitant and vulnerability schemas, and help to clarify differences between cognitions that are symptoms or correlates of depression and those that may play a causal role under certain conditions.     

A test of the hopelessness theory of depression in youth psychiatric inpatients

Evaluated the hopelessness theory of depression among youth psychiatric inpatients. According to the hopelessness theory of depression, negative attributional style may cross-sectionally relate to an array of psychopathological symptoms. However, in the presence but not the absence of negative life events, negative attributional style relates to the onset and exacerbation of depressive (not other) symptoms. Moreover, negative attributional style relates to depression onset or exacerbation specifically via changes in hopelessness (not other mediators). This study of 60 youth psychiatric inpatients (22 boys and 38 girls; ages 9 to 17, M = 14.33, SD = 1.86), 34 of whom were assessed 2 months after leaving the hospital, tested hopelessness theory. At baseline, participants completed self-report questionnaires on attributional style, hopelessness, self-esteem, depression, and anxiety; at follow-up, questionnaires on negative life events and symptoms were completed. Chart diagnoses were available. Results were consistent with all hypotheses derived from hopelessness theory.     

Intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms in women: cognitive schemas as moderators and mediators

In this study the role of cognitive schemas as moderators and mediators between intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms was examined. The sample consisted of 312 women who had suffered an abusive relationship. Participants completed measures of physical, psychological and sexual abuse, maladaptive cognitive schemas (disconnection and rejection, autonomy, and other-directedness), and depression. The evidence for a moderation effect was low and mainly restricted to schemas of the impaired autonomy domain. In contrast, the results supported mediational models in which violence was associated to the cognitive schemas, and these in turn were associated to depressive symptoms. Mediation was partial, with the schemas of the disconnection and rejection domain explaining most of the association between violence and depression. Finally, several explanations for these findings are examined, and their implications for the concept and measure of the cognitive schemas are discussed.     

Maternal Depression and Youth Internalizing and Externalizing Symptomatology: Severity and Chronicity of Past Maternal Depression and Current Maternal Depressive Symptoms

Maternal depression is a well-documented risk factor for youth depression, and taking into account its severity and chronicity may provide important insight into the degree of risk conferred. This study explored the degree to which the severity/chronicity of maternal depression history explained variance in youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms above and beyond current maternal depressive symptoms among 171 youth (58 % male) ages 8 to 12 over a span of 3 years. Severity and chronicity of past maternal depression and current maternal depressive symptoms were examined as predictors of parent-reported youth internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, as well as youth self-reported depressive symptoms. Severity and chronicity of past maternal depression did not account for additional variance in youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms at Time 1 beyond what was accounted for by maternal depressive symptoms at Time 1. Longitudinal growth curve modeling indicated that prior severity/chronicity of maternal depression predicted levels of youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms at each time point when controlling for current maternal depressive symptoms at each time point. Chronicity of maternal depression, apart from severity, also predicted rate of change in youth externalizing symptoms over time. These findings highlight the importance of screening and assessing for current maternal depressive symptoms, as well as the nature of past depressive episodes. Possible mechanisms underlying the association between severity/chronicity of maternal depression and youth outcomes, such as residual effects from depressive history on mother–child interactions, are discussed.     

Excessive Reassurance Seeking, Hassles, and Depressive Symptoms in Children of Affectively Ill Parents: A Multiwave Longitudinal Study

The current study examined whether excessive reassurance seeking serves as a vulnerability factor to depression in a sample of high-risk youth using a multiwave longitudinal design. At Time 1, 140 children (aged 6-14) of affectively disordered parents completed measures assessing reassurance seeking and depressive symptoms. In addition, every 6 weeks during the following year, children and parents completed measures assessing depressive symptoms and the occurrence of hassles. In line with hypotheses, the results of contemporaneous analyses indicated that children with high levels of reassurance seeking reported greater elevations in depressive symptoms following elevations in either hassles or parental depressive symptoms than children with low levels. At the same time, the results of time-lagged analyses indicated that both these relationships were moderated by age with excessive reassurance seeking being associated with greater elevations in depressive symptoms following elevations in either hassles or parental depressive symptoms in older but not younger children.     

青少年抑郁综合认知模型及其性别差异

Beck抑郁认知理论认为功能失调性态度和自动思维对抑郁的形成和发展有着重要的影响, 但是不同水平的认知因素在青少年抑郁中起什么样的作用还有待于进一步的研究。根据Oei和Kwon (2007)综合认知模型(ICM), 我们假设在青少年负性生活事件和抑郁症状间功能失调性态度是调节变量, 而自动思维是中介变量。研究采用开学初和临近期末间隔近四个月两个时间点的纵向数据搜集方式, 对613名初中生施以青少年生活事件量表(ASLEC)、功能失调性态度问卷(DAS)、自动思维问卷(ATQ)以及流调中心用抑郁量表(CES-D), 然后通过路径分析对模型进行了拟合度和性别差异检验, 结果表明：(1)各变量显著相关(p<0.01), 且各变量间隔四个月两个时间点的分数差异显著(p<0.01); (2)修正后的青少年抑郁综合认知模型较好地拟了数据, 且功能失调性态度与负性生活事件的交互作用对自动思维的影响上女生的路径系数显著大于男生。结论：功能失调性态度在负性生活事件和青少年抑郁症状间起调节作用, 而自动思维从中起到了认知中介的作用, 且该模型性别差异显著。     

Cognitive Vulnerabilities as Mediators between Emotional Abuse and Depressive Symptoms

This study tested whether childhood parental emotional abuse and peer emotional bullying serve as antecedents of depression in adolescence and identified the cognitive mechanisms involved in this process. It was hypothesized that the experience of emotional abuse would predict depressive symptoms via development of rumination and negative inferences. A 3-wave longitudinal study was carried out with 998 adolescents (471 girls and 526 boys) between 13 and 17 years of age. Results showed that emotional abuse by parents and peers at Time 1 predicted a worsening of several cognitive vulnerabilities at Time 2. In addition, brooding mediated between the experiences of abuse and the increase of depressive symptoms at Time 3. Thus, findings suggest that the experiences of childhood emotional abuse by parents and peers serve as antecedents to develop a negative cognitive style, vulnerability that, once developed, is a risk factor for the onset of depressive symptoms in adolescence.     

Effect of Parenting and Peer Stressors on Cognitive Vulnerability and Risk for Depression among Youth

Parenting behaviors influence clinical depression among youth, but little is known about the developmental processes that may account for this association. This study investigated whether parenting is associated with the onset of clinical depression and depressive symptoms through negative cognitive style, particularly under conditions of high exposure to stressors, in a community sample of children and adolescents (N = 275; 59% girls). Observational methods were used to assess positive and negative parenting during a laboratory social-evaluative stressor task. Depressive symptoms and clinical depressive episodes were repeatedly assessed over an 18-month prospective follow-up period. Results supported a conditional indirect effect in which low levels of observed positive parenting during a youth stressor task were indirectly associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing an episode of depression and worsening depressive symptoms over the course of the study through youth negative cognitive style, but only for youth who also experienced a high number of peer stressors. These findings elucidate mechanisms through which problematic parenting may contribute to risk for the development of clinical depression during the transition into and across adolescence. Implications for depression interventions are discussed.     

The role of self-criticism, dependency, and hassles in the course of depressive illness: a multiwave longitudinal study

The current study utilized a multiwave longitudinal design to examine whether dependency and/or self-criticism influence the course of depressive symptoms in a community sample of adults with a history of major depression. In addition, the authors examined whether self-esteem serves as a buffer against the development of depressive symptoms following increases in hassles in individuals possessing such traits. At Time 1, 102 participants completed measures assessing depressive symptoms, self-criticism, dependency, and self-esteem. Every 6 weeks for the next year, participants completed measures assessing depressive symptoms and hassles. High self-criticism was associated with greater elevations in depressive symptoms following elevations in hassles in low but not high-self-esteem individuals. Results with respect to dependency, however, were contrary to hypotheses. High dependency was associated with elevations in depressive symptoms following elevations in hassles in high-self-esteem individuals. In contrast, high dependency was associated with chronically elevated depressive symptoms in low-self-esteem individuals.     

Maternal Depression,Maternal Expressed Emotion,and Youth Psychopathology

Across development, maternal depression has been found to be a risk factor for youth psychopathology generally and youth depression specifically. Maternal Expressed Emotion (EE) has been examined as a predictor of outcome among youth with depression. The present study explored the associations between youth psychopathology and two predictors–maternal depression within the child’s lifetime and maternal EE–in a study of children at risk for depression. One hundred and seventy-one youth, ages 8–12, and their mothers participated. To assess maternal and youth psychopathology, dyads were administered structured diagnostic assessments, and mothers and children completed self-report measures of their own depressive symptoms. In addition, mothers completed the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist–Parent Report Version (CBCL) for their children. Maternal EE was assessed based on the Five Minute Speech Sample. History of maternal depression was associated with high maternal EE, and the combination of maternal depression history and maternal EE was associated with children’s own reports of higher depressive symptoms. Current maternal depressive symptoms were associated with mothers’ reports of children’s Internalizing scores on the CBCL, and maternal depression history, current maternal depressive symptoms, and maternal EE were strongly associated with mothers’ reports of children’s Externalizing and Total Problem scores on the CBCL. History of maternal depression and a rating of high or borderline Critical EE (characterized by maternal critical comments and/or reports of a negative relationship) were independently associated with children’s depression diagnoses.     

Rumination as a vulnerability factor to depression during the transition from early to middle adolescence: a multiwave longitudinal study

The current study examined vulnerability to depression during the transition from early to middle adolescence from the perspective of the response styles theory. During an initial assessment, 382 adolescents (ages 11-15 years) completed self-report measures assessing rumination and depressive symptoms as well as a semistructured clinical interview assessing current and past major depressive episodes. Every 3 months for the subsequent 2 years, adolescents completed self-report measures assessing depressive symptoms and negative events. Every 6 months, adolescents completed a semistructured clinical interview assessing the onset of new major depressive episodes. Higher levels of rumination were associated with a greater likelihood of exhibiting a past history of major depressive episodes, a greater likelihood of experiencing the onset of a future major depressive episode, and greater duration of future depressive episodes. Consistent with a vulnerability-stress perspective, rumination moderated the association between the occurrence of negative events and the development of future depressive symptoms and major depressive episodes.     

Emotion Regulation Mediates the Association Between ADHD and Depressive Symptoms in a Community Sample of Youth

The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal relationship between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, emotion regulation (ER) ability, and depressive symptoms within a diverse community sample of 277 youth, ages 9–12 (56 % male). Participants were drawn from a larger study examining adolescent risk behaviors, and completed annual assessments over 3 years. Youth ADHD symptoms were assessed at Time 1 (T1) using the parent-reported Disruptive Behavior Disorders Rating Scale, ER was assessed with the parent-reported Emotion Regulation Checklist at Time 2 (T2), and youth depressive symptoms were assessed using the self-reported Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scales at Time 3 (T3). Analyses examined T2 ER as a mediator between T1 ADHD symptoms (including the unique contributions of inattentive [IA] versus hyperactive/impulsive [HI] symptoms) and T3 depressive symptoms. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated the path model specified provided an excellent fit to the data. Tests of indirect effects suggested that T2 ER appears to be a significant mechanism that underlies the relationship between T1 ADHD and T3 depression, even when accounting for T1 oppositional defiant and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, while both T1 IA and HI symptoms had significant indirect effects on T3 depression through the mechanism T2 ER, HI proved a more robust predictor of T2 ER than IA. Results of this prospective study support cross-sectional findings pointing to ER as a potential mechanism linking ADHD and depressive symptoms in youth. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.     

The response styles theory of depression: A test of specificity and causal mediation

This prospective study tested the diathesis-stress and causal mediation components of the response styles theory of depression. In addition, it examined whether rumination predicts increases in anxious as well as depressive symptoms. At Time 1, 87 college students completed measures of rumination, hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms. Participants also completed measures of hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms at three time points later in the semester: immediately after receiving their most difficult midterm exam grade (Time 2), 4–8 hours later (Time 3), and 4 days later (Time 4). Regardless of exam outcome, the tendency to ruminate in response to depressed mood was associated with: (1) increases in anxious symptoms between Time 1 and Time 3; and (2) increases in both anxious and depressive symptoms between Time 1 and Time 4. In addition, the relationship between rumination and increases in both depressive and anxious symptoms was mediated by hopelessness. In other words, individuals with a ruminative response style exhibited increases in both depressive and anxious symptoms because they exhibited increases in hopelessness.     

Association between Depressive Symptoms and Negative Dependent Life Events from Late Childhood to Adolescence

The association between stressful life events and depression has been consistently supported in the literature; however, studies of the developmental trajectories of these constructs and the nature of their association over time are limited. We examined trajectories of depressive symptoms and negative dependent life events and the associations between these constructs in a sample of 916 youth assessed annually from age 9 to 16, using latent growth curve modeling. Youth depressive symptoms, as rated by youth, parents, and teachers, decreased from late childhood into adolescence, whereas rates of youth-rated life events did not change significantly over time. Initial levels of depressive symptoms were positively associated with initial levels of life events. Furthermore, after controlling for the initial association between the two constructs, increases in depressive symptoms (as assessed by parents and youth) were positively associated with increases in life events over time. The study builds on prior research by focusing specifically on negative dependent life events, examining results across multiple informants, and employing latent growth curve modeling to evaluate associations between trajectories of life events and depressive symptoms in a longitudinal adolescent sample. Additional studies employing latent growth modeling to examine the changes in this association during adolescence are needed.     

Anxiety sensitivity as a specific and unique marker of anxious symptoms in youth psychiatric inpatients

We addressed several questions regarding the relation of anxiety sensitivity to anxious symptoms among 47 youth psychiatric inpatients (18 boys, 29 girls), ages 9–17 (M = 14.23, SD = 1.89). Participants completed measures of anxiety sensitivity, anxious and depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, and positive and negative affect; chart diagnoses were available. Consistent with hypotheses, we found that (a) anxiety sensitivity was associated with anxious symptoms, even controlling for trait anxiety and depressive symptoms; and (b) anxiety sensitivity displayed symptom specificity to anxious versus depressive symptoms (i.e., was associated with anxiety controlling for depression but not with depression controlling for anxiety). Furthermore, regarding factors of anxiety sensitivity, we obtained mixed support for our prediction that phrenophobia would be associated with both depression and anxiety, whereas fear of physical arousal would be associated with anxiety but not depression. Implications for the construct validity of anxiety sensitivity were discussed.