Perfectionism, negative social feedback, and interpersonal rumination in depression and social anxiety.

The current study investigated the associations among trait perfectionism, perfectionistic self-presentation, negative social feedback, interpersonal rumination, depressive symptoms, and social anxiety. New measures of negative social feedback and interpersonal rumination were used to evaluate their relevance to the social aspects of perfectionism and their roles in distress. A sample of 155 undergraduate students completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Scale, the Social Feedback Questionnaire, Rumination About an Interpersonal Offense, and measures of depressive symptoms and social anxiety. The results confirmed that socially prescribed perfectionism and perfectionistic self-presentation were associated significantly with negative social feedback and rumination following interpersonal events (i.e., being hurt, humiliated, mistreated). Also, depressive symptoms and social anxiety were associated significantly with negative social feedback, interpersonal rumination, trait perfectionism, and perfectionistic self-presentation. Additional analyses indicated that negative social feedback and interpersonal rumination mediated the links between components of the perfectionism construct and distress. Overall, our findings suggest that self-reported receipt of frequent negative feedback from others and engaging in rumination about an interpersonal event play important roles in the distress experienced by certain individuals with high levels of perfectionism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reciprocal relations between rumination and bulimic, substance abuse, and depressive symptoms in female adolescents.

The authors examined the reciprocal relations between rumination and symptoms of depression, bulimia, and substance abuse with longitudinal data from 496 female adolescents. Rumination predicted future increases in bulimic and substance abuse symptoms, as well as onset of major depression, binge eating, and substance abuse. Depressive and bulimic, but not substance abuse, symptoms predicted increases in rumination. Rumination did not predict increases in externalizing symptoms, providing evidence for the specificity of effects of rumination, although externalizing symptoms predicted future increases in rumination. Results suggest rumination may contribute to the etiology of depressive, bulimic, and substance abuse pathology and that the former two disturbances may foster increased rumination. Results imply that it might be beneficial for prevention programs to target this cognitive vulnerability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Diurnal variation in rumination.

The present study investigated the daily fluctuation of ruminative thinking and its individual differences by using the experience sampling method. Participants recorded their thought contents and negative affect eight times a day for a week at semirandom intervals. High-trait ruminators showed high levels of self-focus, unpleasantness, and uncontrollability in their thoughts over the sampling course. These variables were interacted to predict the levels of concurrent negative affect: Self-focus was strongly associated with increased levels of negative affect when the thought was highly unpleasant and uncontrollable. A composite measure of rumination, including self-focus, unpleasantness, and uncontrollability, exhibited diurnal variation, which was assimilated by a quadratic function of time of day. However, there were differences in the estimated parameters of diurnal trajectories between high and low levels of depression, which indicated that individuals with higher levels of depression are more likely to engage in rumination in the evening, not in the morning, than those with lower levels of depression. These findings suggest that rumination in the evening would play an important role in the exacerbation and maintenance of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of rumination and distraction in formerly depressed inpatients and community controls.

The response styles theory (S. Nolen-Hoeksema, B. E. Wisco, & S. Lyubomirsky, 2008) supposes that ruminative coping is a cognitive risk factor for the course of depression, whereas distractive coping has protective effects. The authors present a longitudinal study on reciprocal relations between coping styles and depressive symptoms. They investigated 82 formerly depressed inpatients 4 weeks, 6 months, and 3.5 years after hospital discharge together with 76 age- and gender-matched community controls. Depressive symptoms predicted future symptom-focused rumination over the initial short-term interval in both samples. In former inpatients, this predictive effect was also significant over the subsequent long-term interval. Symptom-focused rumination and distraction were significant predictors of future depressive symptoms across both intervals, with sample-specific effects. In the community sample, symptom-focused rumination predicted more depressive symptoms, whereas in former inpatients, distractive coping predicted fewer depressive symptoms over time. The authors conclude that interventions aimed at reducing rumination should preferably be applied in preventive and early intervention settings, although in individuals with a history of more severe and long-standing depression rumination might gradually lose its capacity to predict the further illness course. In these persons, interventions should particularly strengthen distractive coping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An exploration of the emotional cascade model in borderline personality disorder.

The emotional cascade model proposes that the emotional and behavioral dysregulation of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) may be fundamentally linked through emotional cascades, vicious cycles of intense rumination and negative affect that may induce aversive emotional states. In order to reduce this aversive emotion, dysregulated behaviors such as non-suicidal self-injury may then be used as distractions from intense rumination. This study explored emotional cascades in a sample enriched with participants meeting diagnostic criteria for BPD. The first part of the study explored a structural equation model that examined the mediational effects of emotional cascades on the relationship between BPD symptoms and dysregulated behavior and found evidence for full mediation, even after controlling for symptoms of depression and other Cluster B disorders. The second part of the study examined the effects of a rumination induction conducted with the intention of eliciting emotional cascades in those diagnosed with BPD. The results demonstrated that individuals with BPD experienced greater reactivity and intensity of negative affect, but not of positive affect, following the procedure—even when controlling for current depressive symptoms. Future directions and clinical implications for the emotional cascade model are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of happiness as a buffer of the rumination–adjustment link: Ethnic differences between European and Asian American students.

Individuals who ruminate (i.e., a tendency to respond to negative life events with negative self-reflection) have consistently been found to be associated with maladaptive functioning (i.e., anxious and depressive symptoms). Happy individuals, on the other hand, have been found to have minimized anxious and depressive symptoms. Not surprisingly, rumination is negatively correlated with happiness. However, ethnic variations in the associations between these variables have not been studied previously. Thus, an integrative model involving rumination and happiness as predictors of psychological maladjustment (viz., depressive and anxious symptoms) was proposed and tested in 184 Asian Americans and 238 European Americans. For European Americans and not Asian Americans, results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated a significant Rumination × Happiness interaction in predicting each of the maladjustment measures after accounting for the influences of both rumination and happiness. These findings are taken to offer support for a more interactive regression model of psychological maladjustment involving rumination and happiness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity and rumination in predicting the course of depression.

Reduced autobiographical memory (AM) specificity is a known vulnerability factor for depression. AM specificity was investigated as a predictor of depression with the Autobiographical Memory Test (J. M. G. Williams & K. Broadbent, 1986). When baseline depression scores were partialed, reduced AM specificity to negative cue words predicted higher levels of depression at 7-month follow-up. Once rumination was taken into account by means of the Rumination on Sadness Scale (M. Conway, P. A. R. Csank, S. L. Holm, & C. K. Blake, 2000), AM specificity no longer predicted depression, suggesting that the predictive value of AM specificity observed in previous studies might be--at least partly--explained as an effect of rumination. Further mediation analyses indeed revealed support for rumination as a mediator of the relation between reduced AM specificity and poor outcome of depression. (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)     

The influence of child gender role and maternal feedback to child stress on the emergence of the gender difference in depressive rumination in adolescence.

Extensive research has linked a greater female tendency to ruminate about depressed feelings or mood to the gender difference in depression. However, the developmental origins of the gender difference in depressive rumination are not well understood. We hypothesized that girls and women may be more likely to ruminate because rumination represents a gender-stereotyped coping style that is associated with a more feminine gender role identity, maternal encouragement of emotion expression, and passive coping responses to stress. This study examined whether child self-reported gender role identity and observed maternal responses to child stress mediated the emergent gender difference in depressive rumination in adolescence. Maternal gender role attitudes were further hypothesized to moderate the relationship between child sex and mediating variables. Rumination and gender role identity were assessed in 316 youths and their mothers in a longitudinal study from age 11 to age 15; in addition, 153 mother–child dyads participated in an observational task at age 11 from which maternal responses to a child stressor were coded. Results indicated that greater feminine gender role identity among children and encouragement of emotion expression by mothers at age 11 significantly mediated the association between child sex and the development of depressive rumination at age 15, even after controlling for rumination at age 11. Maternal gender role attitudes significantly moderated the relationship between child sex and maternal encouragement of emotion expression, such that mothers who endorsed more traditional gender role attitudes themselves were particularly likely to encourage emotion expression in their daughters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rumination, emotion, and forgiveness: Three longitudinal studies.

In 3 studies, the authors investigated whether within-persons increases in rumination about an interpersonal transgression were associated with within-persons reductions in forgiveness. Results supported this hypothesis. The association of transient increases in rumination with transient reductions in forgiveness appeared to be mediated by anger, but not fear, toward the transgressor. The association of rumination and forgiveness was not confounded by daily fluctuations in positive affect and negative affect, and it was not moderated by trait levels of positive affectivity, negative affectivity, or perceived hurtfulness of the transgression. Cross-lagged associations of rumination and forgiveness in Study 3 more consistently supported the proposition that increased rumination precedes reductions in forgiveness than the proposition that increased forgiveness precedes reductions in rumination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of rumination in depressive disorders and mixed anxiety/depressive symptoms.

Several studies have shown that people who engage in ruminative responses to depressive symptoms have higher levels of depressive symptoms over time, after accounting for baseline levels of depressive symptoms. The analyses reported here showed that rumination also predicted depressive disorders, including new onsets of depressive episodes. Rumination predicted chronicity of depressive disorders before accounting for the effects of baseline depressive symptoms but not after accounting for the effects of baseline depressive symptoms. Rumination also predicted anxiety symptoms and may be particularly characteristic of people with mixed anxiety/depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of cognitive vulnerabilities to depression: A short-term prospective multiwave study.

The stability of 3 cognitive vulnerabilities--a negative cognitive style, dysfunctional attitudes, and rumination--as well as depressive symptoms as a benchmark were examined to investigate whether cognitive vulnerabilities are stable, enduring risks for depression. A sample of adolescents (6th-10th graders) completed measures of these 3 cognitive vulnerabilities and depressive symptoms every 5 weeks for 4 waves of data across 5 months. Mean-level and differential stability were examined for the sample overall and by age subgroups. A negative cognitive style exhibited mean-level stability, whereas rumination and dysfunctional attitudes showed some mean-level change. Absolute magnitudes of test-retest reliabilities were strong for depressive symptoms (mean r = .70), moderately high for a negative cognitive style (mean r = .52), and more modest for rumination (mean r = .28) and dysfunctional attitudes (mean r = .26). Structural equation modeling showed that primarily enduring processes, but not contextual forces, contributed to the patterning of these test-retest reliabilities over time for a negative cognitive style and dysfunctional attitudes, whereas both enduring and contextual dynamics appeared to underlie the stability for rumination. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vulnerable self-esteem and depressive symptoms: Prospective findings comparing three alternative conceptualizations.

Across diverse theoretical orientations, vulnerable self-esteem (SE) is thought to act as a diathesis for depression after life stress. In the present study, the roles of trait-level SE, low SE primed by depressed mood, and labile SE in prospectively predicting changes in depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample (n?=?192) were examined. Results indicate that labile SE predicted increases in symptoms. Furthermore, a 3-way interaction (Labile SE?×?Academic Stress?×?Initial Depression) suggested that in Ss who were initially asymptomatic, lability made Ss differentially vulnerable to increases in depressive symptoms after stress. In contrast to labile SE, trait-level SE and priming of low SE were relatively weak predictors of changes in depressive symptoms and did not interact with stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anger and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in crime victims: A longitudinal analysis.

Among trauma-exposed individuals, severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms is strongly correlated with anger. The authors used 2 longitudinal data sets with 282 and 218 crime victims, respectively, to investigate the temporal sequence of anger and PTSD symptoms following the assault. Cross-lagged regression analyses indicated that PTSD symptoms predicted subsequent level of anger, but that anger did not predict subsequent PTSD symptoms. Testing alternative models (common factor model, unmeasured 3rd variable model) that might account for spuriousness of the relation strengthened confidence in the results of the cross-lagged analyses. Further analyses suggested that rumination mediates the effect of PTSD symptoms on anger. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring state-specific rumination: Development of the Rumination About an Interpersonal Offense Scale.

The tendency to ruminate has been consistently linked to psychological disturbances, such as increased stress, anger, and fear in response to provocations. However, existing measures of rumination focus on the disposition to ruminate rather than on rumination about a specific situation. This limits the ability to explore rumination about a specific situation and makes the assessment of change as a result of time, contextual factors, or psychological interventions difficult. Across three samples, including a clinical sample, the reliability and validity of the Rumination About an Interpersonal Offense scale (RIO) was examined. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a unidimensional structure. Internal consistency and test-retest reliabilities were adequate. Convergent and discriminant validity were also supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with anger and the premenstrual syndrome

OBJECTIVE: Investigations in recent years confirm the importance of "anger coping-behaviour" for women suffering from different diseases such as migraine, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. The hypothesis for this investigation was that "anger-in" coping (anger-suppression) is a possible causal factor in the premenstrual syndrome. METHODS: Data analysis was undertaken on 38 patients (average age 32 years) fulfilling the inclusion criteria. The Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) was used for measuring the intensity of premenstrual symptoms. As a result of a cluster analysis of MDQ scores, the 38 patients were divided into 3 subgroups (group 1: mild symptoms, n = 16; group 2: moderate symptoms, n = 10; groups 3: severe symptoms, n = 12). The 3 groups were compared by using different questionnaires regarding the variables anger, attitudes to menarche and menstrual bleeding, anxiety and depression. Additionally, sociodemographic data were obtained and a daily record taken for 2 days premenstrually and 5 day postmenstrually of subjective replies to a standardized protocol. RESULTS: Contrary to our expectations the results showed no significant differences for "anger coping" between the 3 subgroups. Increased daily stress (professional and familial double load) statistically significantly influenced the intensity of premenstrual symptoms. Additional significant factors were a general tendency towards somatization disorder, a negative attitude toward menarche and menstrual bleeding, as well as a tendency to depressive mood in patients with severe premenstrual symptoms. CONCLUSION: Emotional disorders (anger, anxiety) showed less influence on the premenstrual syndrome in the investigated women than daily stress and medical anamnesis.     

Processing mode causally influences emotional reactivity: Distinct effects of abstract versus concrete construal on emotional response.

Three studies are reported showing that emotional responses to stress can be modified by systematic prior practice in adopting particular processing modes. Participants were induced to think about positive and negative scenarios in a mode either characteristic of or inconsistent with the abstract-evaluative mind-set observed in depressive rumination, via explicit instructions (Experiments 1 and 2) and via implicit induction of interpretative biases (Experiment 3), before being exposed to a failure experience. In all three studies, participants trained into the mode antithetical to depressive rumination demonstrated less emotional reactivity following failure than participants trained into the mode consistent with depressive rumination. These findings provide evidence consistent with the hypothesis that processing mode modifies emotional reactivity and support the processing-mode theory of rumination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response styles among patients with minor depression and dysthymia in primary care.

Ruminative responses to depression have predicted duration and severity of depressive symptoms. The authors examined how response styles change over the course of treatment for depression and as a function of type of treatment. They also examined the ability of response styles to predict treatment outcome and status at follow-up. Primary care patients (n=96) with dysthymia or minor depression were randomly assigned to problem-solving therapy, paroxetine, or placebo. Patients' depressive symptoms and rumination, but not distraction, decreased over time. Pretreatment rumination and distraction were associated with more depressive symptoms at the conclusion of treatment; the latter finding was not consistent with the response style theory of depression. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for this theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship adjustment, depression, and anxiety during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

The associations between relationship adjustment and symptoms of depression and anxiety were evaluated in a sample of pregnant married or cohabiting women (N = 113) who were at risk for perinatal depression because of a prior history of major depression. Women completed self-report measures of relationship adjustment, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms monthly during pregnancy and for the first six months following the birth of their child. Multilevel modeling was used to examine concurrent and time-lagged within-subjects effects for relationship adjustment and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Results revealed that (a) relationship adjustment was associated with both depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms in concurrent analyses; (b) relationship adjustment was predictive of subsequent anxiety symptoms but not subsequent depressive symptoms in lagged analyses; and (c) depressive symptoms were predictive of subsequent relationship adjustment in lagged analyses with symptoms of depression and anxiety examined simultaneously. These results support the continued investigation into the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between relationship functioning and depressive and anxiety symptoms in women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with rumination in healthy adults.

This study examined associations between the tendency to ruminate and 2 polymorphisms: the Val66Met polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene and 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4). Participants were a homogeneous group of healthy, unmedicated, never depressed individuals with few current symptoms of depression (N = 71). Results indicated that met heterozygotes of the BDNF allele were significantly more likely to ruminate than individuals homozygous for the val BDNF allele. There was no association between rumination and the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism. Furthermore, the interaction between the 5-HTTLPR and BDNF polymorphisms did not predict rumination. Results suggest that variation in the BDNF gene may contribute to the tendency to ruminate. Because this association exists in healthy adults, it may represent a susceptibility factor for affective disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)