The Relationship Between Automatic Thoughts and Negative Emotions in Children and Adolescents: A Test of the Cognitive Content-Specificity Hypothesis.

The aim of this study was to test the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis in children and adolescents aged 7-16 years. Participants consisted of a community sample of 200 youth and a clinical sample of 160 youth with anxiety, depressive, or disruptive behavior disorders. Participants completed several self-report measures assessing a wide range of negative beliefs and symptoms of internalizing and externalizing problems. Multivariate analyses examining the interrelationships between beliefs and noncognitive symptoms revealed that thoughts on loss or personal failure were the strongest predictors of depressive symptoms, thoughts on social threat were the strongest predictors of anxiety symptoms, and thoughts on hostility or revenge were the strongest predictors of aggression. Results showed clear evidence of cognitive-affective specificity across both internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vulnerability to depressive symptomatology: A prospective test of the diathesis-stress and causal mediation components of the hopelessness theory of depression.

The diathesis-stress and causal mediation components of the hopelessness theory of depression (L. Y. Abramson et al, 1989) were tested using a prospective methodology. Measures of the 3 vulnerability factors posited by the theory (cognitive diatheses about cause, consequences, and self) were completed by 152 Ss at Time (T) 1. Ss completed measures of depressive symptoms, anxious symptoms, and hopelessness at T1 and again at T2, 5 wks later. Naturally occurring stressors were assessed at T2 (covering the T1–T2 interval). Consistent with the diathesis-stress component, each Cognitive Diathesis?×?Stress (CD?×?S) interaction predicted onset of depressive symptoms from T1 to T2. In contrast, the CD?×?S interactions predicted neither state nor trait anxiety. In addition, 2 of the 3 CD?×?S interactions (those involving cause and self, but not consequences) were partially mediated by hopelessness. Implications for future work on the hopelessness theory of depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictive validity of automatic self-associations for the onset of anxiety disorders.

Negative self-cognitions are assumed to play an important role in the onset of anxiety disorders. Current dual-process models emphasize the relevance of differentiating between more automatic and more deliberate self-cognitions in this respect. Therefore, this study was designed to test the prognostic value of both deliberate and automatic self-anxious associations as a generic vulnerability factor for the onset of anxiety disorders between baseline and 2-year follow-up. To test the disorder specificity of negative self-associations, we also measured self-depressed associations. Self-report measures of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, neuroticism, and fearful avoidance were included as covariates. Healthy controls (n = 593), individuals who had depression (n = 238), and individuals remitted from an anxiety disorder (n = 448) were tested as part of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. Deliberate self-anxious associations predicted the onset of anxiety disorders in all groups. Automatic self-anxious associations showed predictive validity only in individuals remitted from an anxiety disorder or in currently depressed individuals. Although deliberate self-depressed associations were related to the onset of anxiety disorders as well, automatic self-depressed associations were not. In the (remitted) patient groups, only deliberate self-anxious associations showed independent predictive value for the onset of anxiety disorders together with self-reported fearful avoidance behavior. In the healthy controls, only a composite index of negative emotionality (depressive or anxiety symptoms and neuroticism) showed independent predictive validity. This study provides the first evidence that automatic and deliberate self-anxious associations have predictive value for the future onset of anxiety disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specificity of attributions and overgeneralization in depression and anxiety.

We tested whether the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Abramson, Seligman, & Teasedale, 1978) and the Overgeneralization subscale of the Attitudes Toward Self scale (ATS; Carver & Ganellen, 1983) were (a) correlated with and (b) specific to depression. Given the high association between depression and anxiety, we examined simple and partial correlations between ratings of depression, anxiety, the ASQ, and the ATS. With the exception of internality, attributions covaried with depression and anxiety but were not specific to depression. In contrast, overgeneralization was related specifically to depression but not anxiety. Discussion centers on whether there is a specific relation between depression and cognitions and the possibility that self-evaluation processes following negative events may be more relevant to depression than explanations concerning the causes of the event. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroticism as a common feature of the depressive and anxiety disorders: A test of the revised integrative hierarchical model in a national sample.

The revised integrative hierarchical model of depression and anxiety (S. Mineka, D. Watson, & L. A. Clark, 1998) proposes that high levels of neuroticism are shared between the depressive and anxiety disorders. This perspective was evaluated with data from the National Comorbidity Survey (N = 5,847), a population-based community sample. Analyses were based on both a broadband (i.e., diagnostic class) and a narrowband (i.e., specific disorder) approach. Results supported the model insofar as high neuroticism was shared across the depressive and anxiety disorders and was particularly elevated in people with comorbid depression and anxiety. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the association between personality and the depressive and anxiety disorders in a community sample and for the revised integrative hierarchical perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The symptom perception hypothesis revised: Depression and anxiety play different roles in concurrent and retrospective physical symptom reporting.

According to the classic symptom perception hypothesis (Costa & McCrae, 1987; Watson & Pennebaker, 1989), the global predisposition to frequently experience a variety of negative emotions—that is, neuroticism (N) or trait negative affectivity (NA)—is associated with inflated physical symptom reporting. We tested a revision of this hypothesis, which posits distinctive roles for depression and anxiety in the physical symptom experience. Three studies tested predictions from the revised symptom perception hypothesis: (a) that depressive affect should be related to inflated retrospective physical symptom reports and (b) that anxious affect should be related to inflated concurrent, or momentary, physical symptom reports. Study 1 assessed the relations among N/NA, depressive affect, and recall of physical symptoms experienced in the previous 3 weeks. Depressive affect was uniquely and positively associated with recalling more symptoms. When entered with depressive affect in multiple regression analyses, neuroticism was not associated with level of symptoms recalled. In Study 2, participants were randomly assigned to anxious, depressed, angry, happy, or neutral mood inductions and then reported about concurrent symptom experience. Participants in the anxious mood condition reported significantly more concurrent physical symptoms than did those in the other 4 conditions. In Study 3, anxious, depressed, or neutral mood was induced, followed by assessment of both concurrent and retrospective physical symptoms. Those assigned to the anxious mood induction reported more concurrent symptoms, while those in the depressed mood condition reported having experienced more symptoms in the past. These findings are consistent with the idea that encoding and retrieval processes, which are differentially associated with anxious versus depressed affect, influence different aspects of physical symptom reporting. The results have implications for self-diagnosis, medical treatment-seeking, and care, and potential insights about other complex social and interpersonal behaviors are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive correlates of depressive symptoms in hospitalized adolescents

This study examined the relationship between self-reported depression and cognitive style in adolescent inpatients. Attributional style, perceived control over environmental events, and hopelessness were assessed in 80 consecutive admissions to an adolescent psychiatric unit. BDI scores were used to classify 36 patients as depressed and 44 as nondepressed. Adolescents who reported depression also reported significantly more internal attributions for negative events and less internal attributions for positive events, evidenced a more external locus of control, and described themselves as significantly more hopeless than did the nondepressed adolescents. Hopelessness and internal attributions for negative events were the strongest predictors of depressive symptoms. In contrast to the findings of most studies using clinical populations of depressed children and adolescents, a maladaptive cognitive style and self-reported depression were highly, positively correlated.     

Daily Depression and Cognitions About Stress: Evidence for a Traitlike Depressogenic Cognitive Style and the Prediction of Depressive Symptoms in a Prospective Daily Diary Study.

The authors examined the stability and dynamic structure of negative cognitions made to naturalistic stressors and the prediction of depressive symptoms in a daily diary study. Young adults reported on dispositional depression vulnerabilities at baseline, including a depressogenic cognitive style, dysfunctional attitudes, rumination, neuroticism, and initial depression, and then completed short diaries recording the inferences they made to the most negative event of the day along with their experience of depressive symptoms every day for 35 consecutive days. Daily cognitions about stressors exhibited moderate stability across time. A traitlike model, rather than a contextual one, explained this pattern of stability best. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that individuals' dispositional depressogenic cognitive style, neuroticism, and their daily negative cognitions about stressors predicted fluctuations in daily depressive symptoms. Dispositional neuroticism and negative cognitive style interacted with daily negative cognitions in different ways to predict daily depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptomatology in relation to emotional control and chronic pain in persons who are HIV positive.

Objective: To examine the relations of emotional control and chronic pain to depressive symptomatology in persons with positive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status. Study Design: Cross-sectional survey. Participants: One hundred twenty (51 women, 69 men) individuals with serologically documented HIV. Main Outcome Measures: Measures of depressive symptomatology (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale [CES-D]; L. S. Radloff, 1977), emotional control (i.e., inhibited expression of feelings of anger, anxiety, or depression; Courtauld Emotional Control Scale; M. Watson & S. Greer, 1983), and chronic pain. Results: Full multiple regression analysis showed that constant pain, emotional control, and antidepressant use were all significant predictors of (and positively associated with) CES-D total scores. Conclusions: Within comprehensive rehabilitation programs with these patients, pain management is a critical issue. Treatment should address patients' comorbid depressive symptomatology and difficulties with expressing negative emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bidirectional relations of religious orientation and depressive symptoms in adolescents: A short-term longitudinal study.

Religious orientation can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic: intrinsically oriented individuals “live their religion,” whereas extrinsically oriented individuals practice religion mainly to gain external benefits. In adults, depression has been found to correlate negatively with intrinsic religious orientation and positively with extrinsic orientation. Studies of the relation between religiosity and depression typically have not been longitudinal, conducted with adolescents, controlled for the influence of other factors associated with depression (i.e., negative cognitions), or examined the reverse relation of depression predicting religious orientation. Our 4-month longitudinal study of 273 ninth-grade students addressed these issues. Results showed that higher intrinsic religious orientation measured at baseline significantly predicted lower self-reported depressive symptoms 4 months later, controlling for initial level of depressive symptoms and cognitive style; in contrast, extrinsic orientation and the interaction between religious orientation and life events did not significantly predict later depressive symptoms. Self-reported depressive symptoms, however, did not predict either intrinsic or extrinsic religious orientation 4 months later. Factors contributing to different findings for adolescents versus adults in the relation between extrinsic religious orientation and depression are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the cognitive diathesis-stress model of depression in children: Academic stressors, attributional style, perceived competence, and control.

The cognitive diathesis–stress model of depression was tested in a sample of 439 children in grades 5 and 6. Attributional style and cognitions about academic competence and control over achievement were assessed before the occurrence of a potentially stressful event—receiving unacceptable grades on a report card. Depressive symptoms were assessed 1 week before the event, the morning after, and 5 days later. Replicating G. I. Metalsky, L. J. Halberstadt, and L. Y. Abramson (1987), stressor level and negative cognitions predicted depressive symptoms the morning after the event, controlling for initial symptom levels. Depressive symptoms 5 days later were predicted by the interactions of negative cognitions with stressors, supporting a cognitive diathesis–stress model. Students who reported a negative explanatory style or lack of academic control and competence expressed more distress after receiving unacceptable grades than did students without such cognitions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of perceived interpersonal functioning on treatment for adolescent depression: IPT-A versus treatment as usual in school-based health clinics.

Objective: Aspects of depressed adolescents’ perceived interpersonal functioning were examined as moderators of response to treatment among adolescents treated with interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents (IPT-A; Mufson, Dorta, Moreau, & Weissman, 2004) or treatment as usual (TAU) in school-based health clinics. Method: Sixty-three adolescents (12–18 years of age) participated in a clinical trial examining the effectiveness of IPT-A (Mufson, Dorta, Wickramaratne, et al., 2004). The sample was 84.1% female and 15.9% male (mean age = 14.67 years). Adolescents were 74.6% Latino, 14.3% African American, 1.6% Asian American, and 9.5% other. They came primarily from low-income families. Adolescents were randomly assigned to receive IPT-A or TAU delivered by school-based mental health clinicians. Assessments, completed at baseline and at Weeks 4, 8, and 12 (or at early termination), included the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Hamilton, 1967), the Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (Robin & Foster, 1989), and the Social Adjustment Scale–Self-Report (Weissman & Bothwell, 1976). Results: Multilevel modeling indicated that treatment condition interacted with adolescents’ baseline reports of conflict with their mothers and social dysfunction with friends to predict the trajectory of adolescents’ depressive symptoms over the course of treatment, controlling for baseline levels of depression. The benefits of IPT-A over TAU were particularly strong for the adolescents who reported high levels of conflict with their mothers and social dysfunction with friends. Conclusions: Replication with larger samples would suggest that IPT-A may be particularly helpful for depressed adolescents who are reporting high levels of conflict with their mothers or interpersonal difficulties with friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitions, depressive symptoms, and development in adolescents.

Examined the generalizability of cognitive models of depression to adolescents and explored developmental differences with regard to depressotypic cognitions. Self-reported depressive symptoms and various hypothesized cognitive correlates (e.g., automatic thoughts, attributions, dysfunctional attitudes) were investigated in a sample of 688 adolescents in Grades 7–12. Measures of normative adolescent cognitions (e.g., egocentrism, self-consciousness) also were included. There was a strong association between negative thinking and depression in adolescents. There was no association between depressogenic thinking and age, nor did the strength of the association between negative cognitions and depression vary from early to middle adolescence. Finally, negative cognitions were associated with self-report measures of both depressive and anxious symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of the first onset of a major depressive episode and changes in depressive symptoms across adolescence: Stress and negative cognitions.

This 6-year longitudinal study examined stressors (e.g., interpersonal, achievement), negative cognitions (self-worth, attributions), and their interactions in the prediction of (a) the first onset of a major depressive episode (MDE), and (b) changes in depressive symptoms in adolescents who varied in risk for depression. The sample included 240 adolescents who were first evaluated in Grade 6 (M = 11.86 years old; SD = 0.57; 54.2% female) and then again annually through Grade 12. Stressful life events and depressive diagnoses were assessed with interviews; negative cognitions and depressive symptoms were assessed with self-report questionnaires. Discrete time hazard modeling revealed a significant interaction between interpersonal stressors and negative cognitions, indicating that first onset of an MDE was predicted by high negative cognitions in the context of low interpersonal stress, and by high levels of interpersonal stressors at both high and low levels of negative cognitions. Analyses of achievement stressors indicated significant main effects of stress, negative cognitions, and risk in the prediction of an MDE, but no interactions. With regard to the prediction of depressive symptoms, multilevel modeling revealed a significant interaction between interpersonal stressors and negative cognitions such that among adolescents with more negative cognitions, higher levels of interpersonal stress predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms, whereas at low levels of negative cognitions, the relation between interpersonal stressors and depression was not significant. Risk (i.e., maternal depression history) and sex did not further moderate these interactions. Implications for intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Controlled prospective study of postpartum mood disorders: Psychological, environmental, and hormonal variables.

Demographic, psychiatric, social, cognitive, and life stress variables were used to determine the etiology of depression in childbearing (CB; n?=?182) and nonchildbearing (NCB; n?=?179) women. Hormonal variables in postpartum depression were also evaluated. In the CB group predictors of depression diagnosis were previous depression, depression during pregnancy, and a Vulnerability (V)?×?Life Stress (LS) interaction; predictors of depressive symptomatology were previous depression, depressive symptoms during pregnancy, life events, and V?×?LS. Only estradiol was associated with postpartum depression diagnosis. In the NCB group V?×?LS was the only predictor of depression diagnosis; depressive symptoms during pregnancy and life events were predictors of depressive symptomatology. Previous findings about depression vulnerability were replicated. The significant V?×?LS interactions support the vulnerability-stress model of postpartum depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective study of stress autonomy versus stress sensitization in adolescents at varied risk for depression.

This longitudinal study investigated the stress autonomy, stress sensitization, and depression vulnerability hypotheses in adolescents across 6 years (i.e., Grades 6 through 12). Participants were 240 children (Time 1 mean age = 11.86, SD = 0.57) who varied in risk for depression on the basis of their mother's history of mood disorders. All analyses were conducted as multilevel models to account for nesting in the data. Results were consistent with the stress sensitization hypothesis. The within-subject relation of stress levels to depressive symptoms strengthened with increasing numbers of prior depressive episodes. In addition, evidence consistent with the vulnerability hypothesis was found. The relation of stress levels to depressive symptoms was stronger for adolescents who were at risk for depression on the basis of maternal depression history and for those who had experienced more depressive episodes through Grade 12. These findings suggest that onsets of depression in adolescents may be predicted by both relatively stable and dynamic transactions between stressful life events and vulnerabilities such as maternal depression and youths' own history of depressive episodes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Illusion of control: Invulnerability to negative affect and depressive symptoms after laboratory and natural stressors.

Examined whether individual differences in susceptibility to the illusion of control predicted differential vulnerability to depressive responses after a laboratory failure and naturally occurring life stressors. The illusion of control decreased the likelihood that Ss (N?=?145) would (1) show immediate negative mood reactions to the lab failure, (2) become discouraged after naturally occurring negative life events, and (3) experience increases in depressive symptoms a month later given the occurrence of a high number of negative life events. In addition, the stress-moderating effect of the illusion of control on later depressive symptoms appeared to be mediated in part by its effect on reducing the discouragement Ss experienced from the occurrence of negative life events. These findings provide support for the hopelessness theory of depression and for the optimistic illusion–mental health link. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in stimulus intensity modulation and its relationship to two styles of depression in older adults.

Research comparing depressive persons with and without manic symptoms shows striking parallels with differences between augmenters and reducers on the Kinesthetic Aftereffect (KAE) task (A. Petrie, 1967). Twenty-three community-dwelling older adults identified by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (S. R. Hathaway & J. C. McKinley, 1951) as depressive without manic symptoms were compared with 24 older adults with manic symptoms on the KAE, the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1985), and Strelau (J. Strelau, 1983) Temperament Inventory. As hypothesized, augmentation was related to depression without manic symptoms, and reduction was related to depression with manic symptoms. Stepwise discriminant analyses indicated that the KAE is a potent discriminator between the 2 types of depression. Three characteristics of Strelau's "strength of nervous system"—excitation, and inhibition and mobility—discriminate significantly between the 2 groups as well as NEO extraversion and conscientiousness. Results suggest that older depressive persons with and without manic symptoms may benefit from different therapeutic interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of stress buffering for adolescent problem behaviors.

A 2-wave longitudinal design, with a 6-mo interval between occasions of measurement, was used to study the interrelations between stressful life events, perceived social support from family and friends, and the internalizing (e.g., depressive symptoms) and externalizing (e.g., alcohol use and delinquent activity) of problems of a sample of 277 middle adolescents (mean age?=?15.7 yrs). Although little support was found for the stress-buffering effects of either family or friend social support, the main effects of stressful life events and low family support were significant prospective predictors of problem behaviors for adolescent girls but not adolescent boys. Results are discussed with regard to mechanisms of differential gender socialization, such as the adolescent gender intensification hypothesis (J. P. Hill and M. W. Lynch, 1983). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)