Empirical evidence of cognitive vulnerability for depression among children and adolescents: a cognitive science and developmental perspective

Attentional bias for rejection and sad words in Chinese left-behind children with depression

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to examine attentional bias (AB) for sad and social rejection words in Chinese left-behind children (LBC) with depression.

METHOD

We investigated both stimulus specificity and components of AB in different groups using a cross-sectional design. Data were drawn from a school assessment of depression and anxiety, from which we selected LBC with depression (n = 40), LBC without depression (n = 33), a control group with depression (n = 31), and a control group without depression (n = 37). AB was measured with a dot-probe task covering two stimulus types (sad and rejection).

RESULTS

The analysis of AB scores revealed a significant three-way interaction (LBC × depression × word type), F(1, 137) = 4.00, p = 0.047, η2 = 0.028, with depressed non-LBC exhibiting a significant depression × word type interaction, F(1, 66) = 4.67, p = 0.034, η2 = 0.066, while the depression × word type interaction was not significant in LBC, F(1, 71) = 0.18, p = 0.675, η2 = 0.002. Depressed children living with their parents showed AB towards sad words but not rejection words, while depressed LBC showed greater AB towards both rejection and sad words.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings provide evidence that an AB towards sad information is critically involved in the depressed LBC. Compared with non-LBC depressed individuals, an AB for rejection may be involved as a risk factor in the LBC. It sheds light on the effective intervention programmes for LBC's depression and have important practical significance for reducing depression and improving the mental health of LBC.

Incremental validity of ERP correlates of self-referential processing in predicting emerging depressive symptoms in late childhood: Evidence from a community-dwelling sample

Depressogenic self-referential processing (e.g., self-schemas reflecting shallower processing of positive, and deeper processing of negative, self-descriptive words) is an established cognitive vulnerability to depression. Alterations of event-related potentials (ERPs) during self-referential processing have been observed in adolescents with depression risk or clinical depression. However, no study has examined ERPs associated with self-referential processing in typical-risk youth with emerging depressive symptoms during late childhood, a high-risk period for depression. It is also unclear to what extent ERPs provide incremental validity in predicting symptoms beyond performance on self-referential processing tasks. Sixty-five community-dwelling children (38 girls; mean age/SD = 11.02/1.59 years) completed a self-referent encoding task (SRET) with EEG recorded. Children showed a larger P2 and a larger late positive potential (LPP) in response to positive SRET stimuli versus negative stimuli. Hierarchical regression showed that in the positive condition only, including ERP correlates (P1, P2, LPP) and interactions between the ERPs and positive SRET score increased the explained variation in depressive symptoms beyond behavioral SRET performance. The LPP in response to positive words was associated with lower depressive symptoms. The P1 and P2 in response to positive words interacted with positive SRET score, such that the association between positive SRET score and symptoms was significant in children with greater P1 but smaller P2. We provide novel evidence supporting the incremental validity of ERPs beyond behavioral makers in predicting emerging depressive symptoms in children. Our findings also highlight the moderating role of ERP activity in strengthening the association between behavioral markers of self-schemas and depressive outcomes.

The development of depressogenic self-schemas: Associations with children's regional grey matter volume in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Cognitive theories of depression contend that biased cognitive information processing plays a causal role in the development of depression. Extensive research shows that deeper processing of negative and/or shallower processing of positive self-descriptors (i.e., negative and positive self-schemas) predicts current and future depression in adults and children. However, the neural correlates of the development of self-referent encoding are poorly understood. We examined children's self-referential processing using the self-referent encoding task (SRET) collected from 74 children at ages 6, 9, and 12; around age 10, these children also contributed structural magnetic resonance imaging data. From age 6 to age 12, both positive and negative self-referential processing showed mean-level growth, with positive self-schemas increasing relatively faster than negative ones. Further, voxel-based morphometry showed that slower growth in positive self-schemas was associated with lower regional gray matter volume (GMV) in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC). Our results suggest that smaller regional GMV within vlPFC, a critical region for regulatory control in affective processing and emotion development, may have implications for the development of depressogenic self-referential processing in mid-to-late childhood.

Relations between Prosociality and Psychological Maladjustment in Chinese Elementary and Secondary School Students: Mediating Roles of Peer Preference and Self-Perceived Social Competence

Despite empirical findings that prosociality can prevent elementary and secondary school students from developing psychological maladjustment, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. The goal of the present study was to examine the mediating effects of peer preference and self-perceived social competence on the associations between prosociality and psychological maladjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms and loneliness). Participants were 951 students (Mage = 11 years, 442 girls) in Grades 3~7 from Shanghai, China. They completed peer nominations of prosociality and peer preference and self-report measures of self-perceived social competence, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. Multiple mediation analyses revealed that: (a) both peer preference and self-perceived social competence mediated the relations between prosociality and psychological maladjustment, and (b) a serial indirect pathway (i.e., prosociality → peer preference → self-perceived social competence → psychological maladjustment) emerged when controlling for age group and gender. These findings point to potential targets in the prevention and intervention of Chinese students' internalization of problems.

Behavioral and ERP indices of self-schematic processing show differential associations with emerging symptoms of depression and social anxiety in late childhood: Evidence from a community-dwelling sample

Symptoms of depression and social anxiety elevate in late childhood. An identified cognitive risk to both depression and social anxiety is maladaptive self-schemas (or self-schematic processing). Beyond the behavioral indices of this construct, event-related potentials (ERPs) during self-schematic processing have also been observed to be associated with depression or depressive symptoms. However, no study has examined the ERPs underlying self-schematic processing in relation to social anxiety. More importantly, it was unclear to what extent behavioral and ERP indices of self-schematic processing were differentially associated with depression and social anxiety, especially in typical-risk youth with emerging symptoms. A hundred and fifteen community-dwelling children (66 girls; Mean age=10.91 years, SD=1.45) completed a self-referent encoding task (SRET) with EEG recorded. A Principal Component Analysis identified a late positive potential (LPP) component elicited in both the positive and negative SRET conditions. Multivariate multiple regression showed that in both conditions, behavioral SRET scores were associated with depressive symptoms while partialling out social anxiety symptoms, but not with social anxiety symptoms with depressive symptoms partialled out. The LPP amplitude elicited in both conditions showed marginally positive associations with social anxiety symptoms while partialling out depressive symptoms, but not with depressive symptoms while accounting for social anxiety. This study provides novel evidence concerning the ERP correlates of self-schematic processing in relation to social anxiety symptoms. More importantly, our findings for the first time speak to the differential associations between the behavioral SRET scores and SRET-elicited LPP and emerging symptoms of depression and social anxiety in late childhood.

Depressive symptoms and persistent negative self-referent thinking among adolescents: A learning account

Learning theories of depression propose that negative thinking is acquired through subsequent rewarding experiences and is often resistant to change even when it becomes associated with punishment. We examined whether this persistency of negative thinking is related to current and future levels of depressive symptoms among adolescents. Persistency of negative self-referent thinking was assessed by means of a decision-making task, namely the emotional reversal learning task. This task offers participants the choice between thinking about negative and positive self-related aspects. Their choice for negative self-referent thinking is initially rewarded but is later punished. Therefore, participants were expected to efficiently switch between negative and positive self-referent thinking, and to internally update their reward expectancy for these thinking options. Results showed that persistency of negative self-referent thinking was related to concurrent levels of depressive symptoms, replicating earlier findings in adults. However, persistency of negative thinking was unrelated to future levels of depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that adolescents with depressive symptoms tend to hold on to the belief that negative self-referent thinking has beneficial consequences, even when it is no longer being rewarded. This tendency should be seen as a concurrent feature of depression, as the predictive value is still in question.

Network structure and temporal stability of depressive symptoms after a natural disaster among children and adolescents

Background: Previous studies have found that the postdisaster developmental course of depression is more stable than that of other mental disorders among children and adolescents. However, the network structure and temporal stability of depressive symptoms after natural disasters among children and adolescents remain unknown.Objective: This study aims to understand the depressive symptom network and evaluate its temporal stability among children and adolescents after natural disasters.Methods: Three-wave measurements were conducted among 1,466 children and adolescents at 3, 15, and 27 months following the Zhouqu debris flow. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by the Child Depression Inventory (CDI), which was dichotomised to signify the presence or absence of depressive symptoms. Depression networks were estimated with the Ising model, and expected influence was used to assess node centrality. A network comparison test was used to test the differences in the depression networks among the three temporal points.Results: Overall, the depressive symptom network was temporally stable regarding symptom centrality and global connectivity over the two-year study period. Self-hate, loneliness, and sleep disturbance were central symptoms and had low variability in the depressive networks at the three temporal points. Crying and self-deprecation had large temporal variability in centrality.Conclusion: The present study provides the first evidence for the temporal stability of the youth depressive symptom network postdisaster. The similar central symptoms and connectivity of depression symptoms at different temporal points after natural disasters may partially explain the stable prevalence and developmental trajectory of depression. Self-hate, loneliness, and sleep disturbance could be central characteristics, and sleep disturbance and reduced appetite, sadness and crying, and misbehaviour and disobedience could be key associations in the endurance of depression among children and adolescents after experiencing a natural disaster.

Parental Depressive Symptoms, Parent Attributional Style, and Child Coping as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in Children of Parents with Anxiety or Mood Disorders

Few studies have examined the effects of parental depressive symptoms on children in China. The present study examined the relationships between parental depression, parental attributional style, children's coping strategies and 5-12-year-old children's depressive symptoms in a sample of Chinese children whose parents had been diagnosed with an anxiety or a mood disorder. The present study confirmed that children of parents with anxiety or mood disorders would show high levels of depressive symptoms. Parents with an optimistic or neutral attributional style rated their children as showing fewer depressive symptoms than parents with a pessimistic style. This study showed a significant positive relationship between children's disengagement coping and children's reports of depressive symptoms. The findings highlight the need for early identification of, and support and intervention programs for, parents suffering from depression and children of depressed parents as a means of protecting the psychological well-being of both parents and children.

Bias of Attentional Oscillations in Individuals with Subthreshold Depression: Evidence from a Pre-Cueing Facial Expression Judgment Task

Background: Study results regarding attentional bias in depressed individuals are inconsistent. Recent studies have found that attention is a discrete process, alternating between periods of either enhanced or diminished attention sensitivity. Whether a visual target can be detected depends on when it occurs relative to these oscillation rhythms. We infer that the inconsistency of attentional bias may be related to the abnormality of attentional oscillations in depressed individuals. Methods: A pre-cueing attentional task was used. We set 48 levels of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between cues and targets and measured the response time (RT) of participants, as well as their EEG signals. Results: The RTs showed patterns of behavioral oscillations. Repeated-measure ANOVA indicated that subthreshold depressed participants had significantly higher RTs for negative expressions than for neutral but significantly lower RTs for positive than for neutral. The frequency analysis indicated that the RT oscillational frequency of subthreshold depressed participants to negative/positive expressions was different from that to neutral. The EEG time-frequency analysis showed that when faced with negative expressions, the intensity of the neural alpha oscillatory power of subthreshold depressed participants was significantly lower than that of normal controls. When faced with positive expressions, the intensity of neural alpha oscillatory power was significantly higher than that of normal controls. Conclusion: Compared to normal persons, subthreshold depressed individuals may have biases in both the amplitude and frequency of attentional oscillations. These attentional biases correspond to the intensity of their neural alpha wave rhythms.

Intergenerational Transmission of Depression during Adolescence: The Mediating Roles of Hostile Attribution Bias, Empathic Concern, and Social Self-Concept

Few studies have empirically examined the role of peer microsystem in the intergenerational transmission of depression, and more importantly, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this potential pathway of intergenerational transmission. The purpose of the current study was to examine the sequential mediation effects of adolescent hostile attribution bias, empathic concern, and social self-concept on the association between maternal depression and adolescent depression. An urban Chinese sample of 761 mother-child dyads was investigated when the adolescents were in secondary school (M = 14.36 years, range =12.33-16.92 years, 52.3% female). The results provided evidence of cross-generational continuity in depression during adolescence, and the hypothesized sequential mediation model was supported. The findings highlight the importance of peer-related factors during the intergenerational transmission of depression and have important implications for interpersonal interventions that aim to prevent depression during adolescence. The limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are briefly discussed.

Experiencing Violence among Children and Adolescents with Depression in the Aspect of Polish Law

Violence is not uncommon in the contemporary world. The consequences of harmful experiences in childhood are often educational problems, difficult behavior, failure to cope in adulthood, duplication of learned, negative behavior patterns and disorders in various spheres/areas of life. The experience of childhood violence is associated with the occurrence of about half of mental disorders with onset in childhood and one third of disorders that appear later in life. Various emotional and behavioral disorders are mentioned among the psychological effects of violence against a child, including depressive disorders. Regarding experiences of violence, there is strong evidence that exposure to sexual or physical violence is a predictor of depressive episodes and depressive symptoms in adolescents. Among adolescents, the impact of violence on depression has been shown to be sustained. Accordingly, evidence suggests that elevated depressive symptoms and episodes of depression may even persist for up to two years after experiencing cases of violence. Due to the destructive consequences of such behavior, international and national law devote much attention to the protection of children's rights. Under Polish law, there are regulations describing measures of reaction within the family, as well as provisions sanctioning violent behavior. Therefore, the study discusses the family and criminal law aspects of violence against minors. The whole study is imbued with considerations of the so-called the obligation to denounce, i.e., to notify about the disclosure of a prohibited act committed to the detriment of minors. This issue was presented in the context of medical secrets and its type-psychiatric discretion.

Depression in Adolescence and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor

The incidence of depression among adolescents has been rapidly increasing in recent years. Environmental and genetic factors have been identified as important risk factors for adolescent depression. However, the mechanisms underlying the development of adolescent depression that are triggered by these risk factors are not well understood. Clinical and preclinical studies have focused more on adult depression, and differences in depressive symptoms between adolescents and adults make it difficult to adequately diagnose and treat adolescent depression. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is known to play a critical role in the pathophysiology of many psychiatric disorders, including depression. However, there are still few studies on adolescent depression. Therefore, in this review paper, the causes and treatment of adolescent depression and the function of BDNF are investigated.

Characteristics of implicit schemas in patients with major depressive disorder

Background

Many psychotherapy theories emphasise the importance of self-schema and other-schema, but most previous studies focused on the explicit self-schema in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the limited studies of implicit self-schema in MDD have shown inconsistencies in their findings. Furthermore, only a few studies have investigated the implicit other-schema, and the pathway illustrating how implicit schemas influence depression remains unclear.

Aims

The primary aim of our study was to explore the characteristics of implicit self-schema and other-schema in patients with MDD. We also examine the chain-mediating effect of attachment relationships and interpersonal trust.

Methods

The present study included 88 patients with MDD and 88 healthy controls (HCs). The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17, Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory—Revised Questionnaire, Trust Scale and the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST) were used to assess depressive symptoms, attachment relationships, interpersonal trust and implicit schemas, respectively. Paired sample t-test was used to compare the reaction time (RT) for positive and negative words within the two groups. Analysis of covariance was used to explore the difference between two groups from the perspective of implicit schemas and interpersonal patterns. The chain mediation model was verified by bootstrap.

Results

(1) For interpersonal patterns, patients with MDD scored significantly higher on attachment anxiety (F=82.150, p<0.001) and attachment avoidance (F=23.192, p<0.001) and scored significantly lower on the predictability (F=30.297, p<0.001), dependence (F=39.728, p<0.001) and faith (F=60.997, p<0.001) dimensions of interpersonal trust. (2) As for implicit schemas, no significant difference was found between the RT for positive self-words and negative self-words in patients with MDD (t=−1.056, p=0.294). However, the HC responded faster to positive self-words than negative self-words (t=−3.286, p=0.001). The RT for positive other-words and negative other-words were significantly different in both patients with MDD (t=2.943, p=0.004) and HCs (t=−2.482, p=0.015), with opposite directions. The EAST effect of other-schema in patients with MDD was significantly different from that in HCs (F=13.051, p<0.001). (3) For the total sample, the EAST effect of other-schema significantly correlated with attachment avoidance, interpersonal trust and depressive symptoms. Attachment avoidance and interpersonal trust were the chain mediators between the EAST effect of other-schema and depressive symptoms (95% CI: −0.090 to −0.008). However, no significant results were found for the EAST effect of other-schema when correlation and mediation analyses were performed for HCs and patients with MDD separately.

Conclusions

This study verified that patients with MDD have abnormal interpersonal patterns and negative implicit schemas. However, no mediating effect of attachment relationships and interpersonal trust was found.

Cognitive assessment using ERP in child and adolescent psychiatry: Difficulties and opportunities

Event related potentials (ERPs) represent powerful tools to investigate cognitive functioning in child and adolescent psychiatry. So far, the available body of research has largely focused on advancements in analysis methods, with little attention given to the perspective of assessment. The aim of this brief report is to provide recommendations for cognitive ERPs assessment that can be applied across diagnostic categories in child and adolescent psychiatry research. First, we discuss major issues for ERPs testing using examples from common psychiatric disorders. We conclude by summing up our recommendations for methodological standards and highlighting the potential role of ERPs in the field.

Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents: Testing Vulnerability-Stress and Protective Models in the Context of COVID-19

Adolescents who experience negative life events may be at risk for depression, particularly those with psychosocial vulnerabilities. We investigate longitudinally the impact of vulnerability/protective factors on the relation between a large-scale negative life event, the COVID-19 pandemic, and depressive symptoms. Adolescents (N = 228, M_age = 14.5 years, 53% female, 73% white) self-reported depressive symptoms 2-4 months before the pandemic (Time 1), and again 2 months following stay-at-home orders (Time 2). At T2, adolescents also completed measures of vulnerability, protective factors, and COVID-19-related distress. Depressive symptoms increased at T2, and COVID-19 distress interacted with resilience and negative cognitive style in predicting increases in T2 depression. Focusing on vulnerability and protective factors in adolescents distressed by large scale negative life events appears crucial.

Childhood ADHD and Executive Functioning: Unique Predictions of Early Adolescent Depression

Given the increasing prevalence of adolescent depression, identification of its early predictors and elucidation of the mechanisms underlying its individual differences is imperative. Controlling for baseline executive functioning (EF), we tested separate ADHD dimensions (i.e., inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity) as independent predictors of early adolescent depression, including temporally-ordered causal mediation by academic functioning and social problems, using structural equation modeling. At baseline, participants consisted of 216 children (67% male) ages 6–9 years old with (n = 112) and without (n = 104) ADHD who subsequently completed Wave 2 and 3 follow-ups approximately two and four years later, respectively. Predictors consisted of separate parent and teacher ratings of childhood ADHD and laboratory-based assessments of key EF domains. At Wave 2, parents and teachers completed normed rating scales of youth academic and social functioning; youth completed standardized assessments of academic achievement. At Wave 3, youth self-reported depression. Baseline inattention positively predicted early adolescent depression whereas childhood hyperactivity-impulsivity and EF did not. Neither academic nor social functioning significantly mediated predictions of depression from baseline ADHD and EF. We consider prediction of early adolescent depression from inattention, including directions for future intervention and prevention research.

Stress events and Changes in Dysfunctional Attitudes and Automatic Thoughts Following Recovery from Depression in Inpatient Psychotherapy: Mediation Analyses with Longitudinal Data

Background

Stressful event exposure, dysfunctional attitudes (DA), negative automatic thoughts (NAT), and declining positive automatic thoughts (PAT) have been associated with depressive relapse/recurrence. Few studies have investigated the course of these variables and their relevance for relapse/recurrence in remitted depression.

Methods

Following successful inpatient treatment, in 39 remitted depressive patients, stressful events, DA, NAT, PAT, and depressive relapse/recurrence were assessed five times during a 16-month follow-up. Data were analyzed with mixed effect models, and mediation effects were tested.

Results

Stressful events after discharge correlated with depressive relapse/recurrence. This association was mainly mediated by a stress-related decline of PAT within four months post discharge. Patients’ DA were relatively stable during the observation period and did not depend on stressful events, indicating DA as a risk trait for depressive relapse/recurrence. Mediation analyses revealed that independent of stress, DA were linked to depressive relapse/recurrence through more NAT.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest stressful events evoke relapse/recurrence in remitted depression through rapid deterioration of PAT after discharge from inpatient therapy. DA are expressed through NAT which additionally contribute to higher risk of depressive relapse/recurrence. Consequently, maintenance therapy requires techniques to promote the maintenance of PAT, and to effectively restructure DA and NAT.

Stressors and Coping Methods of Turkish Adolescents With High and Low Risk of Depression: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND

Stress and coping skills are essential factors in the etiology of depression. Understanding the stressors and coping strategies of adolescents in Turkey may help determine the content of the country-specific depression prevention program.

AIMS

The purpose of this study was to understand the stressors of adolescents with a high or low risk of depression and how they coped with these stressors.

METHOD

This descriptive qualitative study was conducted in a high school in western Turkey. The data were collected via semistructured individual interviews. Eleven adolescents with high risk of depression and 10 adolescents with low risk of depression were included in the study. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The stressors of adolescents and their coping were grouped into three themes: stressors, factors affecting coping strategies of adolescents, and coping. Stressors theme consists of three subthemes: family relationship, peer relationship, and telephone/internet usage. The factors affecting coping strategies of adolescents theme consists of four subthemes: cognitive distortions, self-perception, family relationships, and peer relationships. The coping theme consists of two subthemes: engagement coping and disengagement coping.

CONCLUSIONS

It was determined that adolescents with a high risk of depression had more stressors and used more disengagement-coping techniques. It is recommended that to prevent depression among adolescents, school nurses should take initiatives to strengthen the coping strategies of adolescents with high risk of depression.

Integrating Beck's Cognitive Theory of Depression and the Hopelessness Model in an Adolescent Sample

Adolescence is a critical period in the development of depression. Hence, researching the applicability of cognitive theories in adolescents is crucial. Currently, much remains unknown about how cognitive variables proposed in different theories interplay with one another and whether gender differences in these associations exist. Attempting to integrate Beck's cognitive model and the hopelessness model in adolescents, we conducted a 4-wave study using self-report instruments with 499 adolescents (mean age_Time1 = 15.33 years; SD = 0.75; 63.3% female; 73.7% White, 13.8% Black, 5.4% Latina/o, 4.4% mixed race/ethnicity, and 2.6% other) from a high school where almost one third of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch. Using AMOS and PROCESS to calculate and compare four different theory-driven models, we found support for an integrated model in which the inferential styles proposed in the hopelessness model are located between cognitive errors and the cognitive triad from Beck's cognitive theory. Further, the individual inferential styles and elements of the cognitive triad are associated differently with each other and other variables in the integrated cognitive model. The gender differences we found were limited and did not form a meaningful pattern. If replicated, the integrated model could be the basis to understand how therapeutic techniques developed to modify cognitive variables proposed in one model can impact cognitive constructs from a different theory. This might make cognitive psychotherapies for depression more effective, as it will allow clinicians to integrate therapeutic techniques based on either of the original theories in one theory-driven treatment approach.

Why Does Classroom-Level Victimization Moderate the Association Between Victimization and Depressive Symptoms? The "Healthy Context Paradox" and Two Explanations

The present longitudinal study examined how and why classroom-level victimization moderates the prospective association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms with 2,643 third- and fourth-graders (M_age  = 10.01 years) in China. Multilevel modeling revealed that peer victimization was more strongly associated with increasing depressive symptoms in classrooms with lower classroom-level victimization. Moreover, two mechanisms were identified to explain the moderating effect of classroom-level victimization. First, low classroom-level victimization reduced victimized children's received friendship nominations from peers, thereby leading to increases in depressive affect. Second, low classroom-level victimization affected victimized children's depressive symptoms through damage to their social self-concept. These findings provide support for the "healthy context paradox" in the Chinese culture, and highlight the mechanisms of this phenomenon.

A Latent Class Analysis of Early Adolescent Peer and Dating Violence: Associations With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety

Violence within peer and dating contexts is prevalent among early adolescents. Youth may be victims and/or aggressors and be involved in violence across multiple contexts, resulting in negative outcomes. This study identified patterns of perpetration and victimization for peer and dating violence, using a latent class analysis (LCA), and examined how different patterns of engaging in or experiencing violence among early adolescents were associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Participants included a sample of 508 racially and ethnically diverse youth (51% male) who had dated in the past 3 months. Youth were in the seventh grade within 37 schools and were primarily from economically disadvantaged communities across four sites in the United States. LCA identified three classes: (a) a low involvement in violence class, (b) a peer aggression and peer victimization class, and (c) a peer and dating violence class. Youth involved with multiple forms of violence displayed significantly higher levels of depressive and anxious symptoms than those with low involvement in violence. Study findings revealed the importance of understanding how peer and dating violence co-occur, and how different patterns of aggression and victimization were related to internalizing symptoms. Prevention efforts should address the intersection of victimization and perpetration in peer and dating contexts in potentially reducing internalizing symptoms among early adolescents.

Risk Factors for Depression in Adolescents With ADHD: The Impact of Cognitive Biases and Stress

Objective: Youth diagnosed with ADHD are at heightened risk of depression. However, many do not develop depression. Individuals with specific cognitive biases are more likely to develop depression yet it remains untested whether these vulnerability-stress models apply to depression risk in youth with ADHD. Method: We examined whether interpretation and attention biases moderated the relation between stressful life events and depressive symptoms in a sample of adolescents (M_age = 14.42) with ADHD (n = 59) and without ADHD (n = 36). Results: Youth with ADHD experienced more stressful life events compared with those without ADHD. Interpretation biases moderated the association between stress and depressive symptoms in youth with and without ADHD. Attention biases moderated the association between stress and depressive symptoms in the non-ADHD youth only. Conclusion: These results enhance our understanding of vulnerability for depression in adolescence with ADHD and inform targeted prevention and treatment models during this critical developmental juncture.

Depressogenic self-schemas are associated with smaller regional grey matter volume in never-depressed preadolescents

Self-referential processing (i.e., self-schemas that guide processing of self-descriptive information) emerges early in youth, with deeper encoding of negative self-descriptors and/or shallower encoding of positive self-descriptors causally linked to depression. However, the relationship between depressogenic self-schemas and brain structure is unclear. We investigated associations between self-schemas and regional grey matter volume (GMV) in 84 never-depressed preadolescents oversampled for depression risk based on maternal depression history. Self-schemas were assessed using a Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) and regional GMV was indexed via voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Youths' positive self-schemas were associated with greater regional GMV within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), while negative self-schemas were associated with smaller regional GMV within vlPFC and PCC, areas important to emotion regulation and self-referential processing. These associations remained significant after controlling for youths' concurrent depressive symptoms. Exploratory mediation analysis suggested that adolescents' depressogenic self-schemas may mediate associations between GMV and depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that the observed GMV variations within vlPFC and PCC may serve as neurobiological markers of depressogenic self-schemas during preadolescence.

Children's self-blame appraisals about their mothers' depressive symptoms and risk for internalizing symptoms

Maternal depressive symptoms are a robust predictor of children's risk for internalizing symptoms, yet not all children are negatively affected by exposure to their mothers' symptoms. The present study tested children's self-blame appraisals as a moderator of the association between maternal depressive symptoms and children's internalizing symptoms, controlling for children's negative attributional style. We hypothesized that the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and children's internalizing symptoms would be stronger for children who blamed themselves more for their mothers' symptoms. Participants were 129 mother-child dyads (M child age = 13.63, SD = 2.2; 52.7% female; 38.8% White, 31% African American, 22.5% Latinx/Hispanic) recruited from the community. Results indicated that maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher levels of children's internalizing symptoms for children who reported higher, but not lower, levels of self-blame appraisals. Results were consistent using mothers' or children's reports of their own and each other's symptoms. The findings highlight the importance of assessing children's appraisals about their mothers' depressive symptoms, and suggest that preventive interventions should target children who endorse higher levels of self-blame appraisals. Furthermore, children's self-blame appraisals about mothers' depressive symptoms should be considered as a target of treatment for child internalizing disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Positive Youth Development and Adolescent Depression: A Longitudinal Study Based on Mainland Chinese High School Students

There are several limitations of the scientific literature on the linkage between positive youth development (PYD) attributes and adolescent psychological morbidity. First, longitudinal studies in the field are limited. Second, few studies have used validated PYD measures to explore the related issues. Third, few studies have used large samples. Fourth, limited studies have been conducted in mainland China. In this study, we conducted a longitudinal study using two waves of data collected from 2648 junior high school students in mainland China. In each wave, participants responded to a validated PYD scale (Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale: CPYDS) and other measures of well-being, including the 20-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). After controlling for the background demographic variables, different measures of CPYDS (cognitive-behavioral competence, prosocial attributes, general positive youth development qualities, positive identity, and overall PYD qualities) were negatively associated with CES-D scores in Wave 1 and Wave 2. Longitudinal analyses also revealed that PYD measures in Wave 1 negatively predicted Wave 2 depression scores and the changes over time. The present findings highlight the protective role of PYD attributes in protecting adolescents from depression.

Neural Activity During Self-referential Processing in Children at Risk for Depression

BACKGROUND

According to cognitive theories of depression, more negative and less positive self-schemas are thought to play a causal role in the disorder. Existing evidence speaks to the neural substrates of self-referential processes in both healthy and depressed individuals, but little is known about how the brain relates to self-referential processing in the context of depression risk in children. We therefore studied the neural substrates of self-referential processing in never-depressed preadolescent children at high and low risk for depression based on maternal depression history.

METHODS

A total of 87 never-depressed 10-12-year-old children (29 with maternal depression) completed a self-referential encoding task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging session, in which they were presented a series of positive and negative trait adjectives and endorsed whether each word was self-descriptive. Small volume correction analyses were conducted within 7 regions of interest that are important for self-referential and emotion-related processes.

RESULTS

Analyses of small volume correction indicated that high-risk children showed greater activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the positive-word self-referential encoding task condition than low-risk children. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation mediated the association between maternal depression and child depressive symptoms only when children had lower positive self-schemas, indicating that more positive self-schemas may protect at-risk children from developing depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Cortical midline and prefrontal regions are important to self-, emotion-, and regulation-related processes. Heightened activation within these regions in never-depressed high-risk children indicates that these neurobiological substrates may mediate early vulnerability to depression in the context of cognitive processes relevant to self-concepts.

Psychosocial stressors and protective factors for major depression in youth: evidence from a case-control study

BACKGROUND

Severe adverse life events, such as traumatic experiences, are well-known stressors implicated in (youth) major depression (MD). However, to date, far less is known about the role of more common psychosocial stressors in the context of MD, which are part of everyday life during youth. In addition, it is not well-understood whether and how distinct stressors interact with protective factors in youths diagnosed with MD. Thus, the present study aimed at examining several specific psychosocial stressors implicated in a first-episode juvenile MD and addressed the question whether protective factors might moderate the relationship between stressors and a diagnosis of MD.

METHODS

One-hundred male and female youths with MD and 101 typically developing (TD) controls (10-18 years) were included. A large number of qualitatively different psychosocial stressors occurring in various areas of life were assessed via self-report. Moreover, we also investigated sociodemographic and pre- and postnatal stressors, as well as the presence of familial affective disorders via parental-report. Social support and a positive family climate were conceptualized as protective factors and were assessed via self-report.

RESULTS

Results showed that the proportion of youths experiencing specific psychosocial stressors was higher in the MD than in the TD group. In particular, the proportion of youths indicating changes at home or at school, experiences of violence, delinquent behavior, as well as the proportion of youths who were exposed to sociodemographic stressors was higher in the MD than in the TD group. Moreover, the percentage of youths with a family history of an affective disorder, or whose mothers experienced psychological burdens during/after pregnancy was elevated in the MD group. Youths with MD experienced less social support and a less positive family climate than their TD peers. These factors, however, did not buffer the influence of specific stressors on MD.

CONCLUSION

We could show that next to more severe adverse life events, more common psychosocial stressors are linked to youth MD. Importantly, by identifying distinct stressors in youth MD, our results can increase treatment and prevention efforts aiming to improve the outcomes in youths affected by MD or in at-risk individuals.

Females have more complex patterns of childhood adversity: implications for mental, social, and emotional outcomes in adulthood

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been identified as an important public health problem with serious implications. Less well understood is how distinct configurations of childhood adversities carry differential risks for mental health, emotional, and social outcomes later in life. Objective: To determine if distinct profiles of childhood adversities exist for males and females and to examine if unique associations exist between the resultant latent profiles of childhood adversities and multiple indicators of mental health and social and emotional wellbeing in adulthood. Method: Participants (N = 1,839) were a nationally representative household sample of adults currently residing in the USA and the data were collected via online self-report questionnaires. Latent class analysis was used to identify the optimal number of classes to explain ACE co-occurrence among males and females, separately. ANOVAs, chi-square tests, and t-tests were used to compare male and female classes across multiple mental health, emotional, and social wellbeing variables in adulthood. Results: Females were significantly more likely than males to report a range of ACEs and mental health, social, and emotional difficulties in adulthood. Two- and four-class models were identified as the best fit for males and females, respectively, indicating more complexity and variation in ACE exposures among females. For males and female, ACEs were strongly associated with poorer mental health, emotional, and social outcomes in adulthood. Among females, growing up in a dysfunctional home environment was a significant risk factor for adverse social outcomes in adulthood. Conclusions: Males and females have distinct patterns of childhood adversities, with females experiencing more complex and varied patterns of childhood adversity. These patterns of ACEs were associated with numerous negative mental, emotional, and social outcomes among both sexes.

Translating Cognitive Vulnerability Theory Into Improved Adolescent Depression Screening: A Receiver Operating Characteristic Approach

Traditionally, screening research tests how well a given symptom inventory can identify a concurrent depressive episode. Although developmental psychopathology could inform screening protocols for a myriad of depression outcomes (e.g., prospective depressive episodes), approaches typically used in research make it difficult to translate these findings. Using a translational analytic approach and multiwave longitudinal study design, we examined how screening for cognitive vulnerabilities (rumination, dysfunctional attitudes, and attributional style) may improve our ability to identify concurrent depressive episodes, prospective depressive episodes, first lifetime episodes of depression, and recurrent major depressive episodes. There were 473 sixth-grade (early adolescents) and ninth-grade (middle adolescents; AgeM = 13.15, AgeSD = 1.62) students who completed baseline self-report cognitive vulnerability and depressive symptom measures. At baseline and every 6 months for 3 years, pediatric depression interviews were completed by the caregiver and youth. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) approach was utilized to test our aims. Distinct algorithms best forecasted our depression outcomes. Rumination and attributional style emerged as unique and incrementally valid predictors for prospective episodes after controlling for baseline depressive symptoms. Rumination was the only unique predictor for first lifetime depressive episodes. For recurrent major depression, rumination in early adolescence and attributional style in middle adolescence served as incremental predictors beyond baseline depressive symptoms. Proposed cutoffs and diagnostic likelihood ratios are offered for algorithms for each depression outcome. Assessing cognitive vulnerability represents a feasible method to improve depression screening initiatives. Using an ROC-informed approach can help prevention initiatives better leverage the considerable gains made within developmental psychopathology research.

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.

Trajectories of Symptom Change in the Treatment for Adolescents With Depression Study

OBJECTIVE

Depression is the most prominent mental health disorder among youth and has a profound impact with respect to morbidity and mortality if not addressed. The Treatment for Adolescent Depression Study (TADS) is one of the largest randomized controlled trials that compared the effectiveness of four treatments: cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT); fluoxetine (FLX); combined cognitive-behavioral and fluoxetine treatment (COMB); and placebo (PBO). However, meaningful heterogeneous treatment courses are masked by these group mean comparisons of treatment impact. The present study sought to characterize the acute phase symptom trajectories of the depressed teens enrolled in TADS and to explore predictors of these trajectories, including TADS treatment condition.

METHOD

The TADS sample of 439 adolescent participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder was subjected to growth mixture modeling (GMM) to evaluate subgroups of adolescents with unique trajectories of depression symptom change.

RESULTS

Growth mixture modeling revealed three unique classes of adolescents: (1) a high-severity class with early significant improvement; (2) a high-severity class with limited symptom change; and (3) a moderate severity class with late significant improvement. Baseline predictors of class membership included treatment condition, sex, age, stage of change, depression severity, number of comorbid disorders, hopelessness, melancholia, suicidality, and cognitive distortions.

CONCLUSION

Results of this study may have implications for the selection of which treatment to use for which depressed adolescent.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Treatment for Adolescents With Depression Study (TADS); https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT00006286.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Cognitive Self-schemas across Adolescent Development

Research in developmental psychology highlights youth's self-schemas as one possible pathway to improve adolescents' functioning and promote positive developmental outcomes. Despite this, the trajectory of positive and negative self-schemas is relatively understudied. This study addresses this limitation by empirically examining the trajectory of self-schemas in a community sample of 623 youth (M = 13.04 years; 54% female; 49% African American, 4% Biracial, 47% European American) who were followed over a seven-year period. Caregivers completed measures of parenting practices, maternal rumination and negative inferential style, and adolescents completed a computerized behavioral task assessing self-schemas (i.e., mental frameworks that guide attention, interpretation, and memory of one's experiences). Multilevel growth curve modeling results demonstrated a quadratic slope for negative self-schemas and no mean-level change for positive self-schemas. These trajectories did not vary by gender or racial group. However, parenting factors differentially influenced the trajectories. Specifically, higher levels of parental involvement at baseline, or an active interest and engagement in a child's experiences and activities, related to lower levels of negative self-schemas during adolescence. Additionally, higher levels of parental rumination and parental negative control at baseline related to lower levels of youth positive self-schemas at baseline. These findings contribute to models of youth cognitive development.

Cognitive and attentional vulnerability to depression in youth: A review

Although depressive disorders are among the most common disorders in youth, highly efficacious treatments for childhood affective disorders are lacking. There is significant need to better understand the factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of depression in youth so that treatments can be targeted at optimal mechanisms. The aim of the current paper was to synthesize research on cognitive and neurobiological factors associated with youth depression, guided by De Raedt and Koster's model (2010) for vulnerability to depression in adults. Consistent with model predictions, there is evidence that attentional impairments are greatest in the context of negative information, relative to positive or neutral information, and some evidence that attentional deficits are associated with rumination in depressed youth. However, we found little evidence for the model's assumption that attentional bias is an etiological and maintenance factor for depression. There are several other model predictions that require additional study as current data are lacking. Overall, De Raedt and Koster's (2010) integrative cognitive and biological framework has tremendous potential to move the field forward in understanding the development of depression in youth. Additional longitudinal studies incorporating measures across biological and cognitive levels of analysis are needed.

A Scoping Review of Different Ways of Thinking in Children

Despite the growing interest in differences in thinking, much less is known about differences in how children think and how they come to think. The aim of this scoping review is to map out the key concepts underpinning the conceptual boundaries of children's (5⁻12 years of age) individual differences in thinking. The scoping review identified eight papers for analysis; all of which were set in an educational context. The findings presented inconclusive results regarding learning and thinking differences related to students' academic achievement. This review has identified two main drawbacks with this research area. Firstly, there is little consensus between the models employed to understand the different ways children think. To further place these findings into context we look at conceptualisations of individual differences, where individuality is considered a process of stable characteristics interacting with more dynamic structures. This analysis highlights the second drawback, previous research has solely focused on exploring thinking characteristics that are not stable and are therefore subject to change depending on the context. The review found that there is little to no research which explores thinking preferences in children that are consistent across contexts and time. Moreover, there was no research identified that explored the impact of differences in thinking outside the educational domain, such as children's wellbeing. Further research is required to identify the more stable characteristics that reflect and capture children's different ways of thinking.

Altered Working Memory Processing of Emotion in Adolescents with Dysphoric Symptomatology: An Eye Tracking Study

It has been suggested that altered processing of emotion during cognitive control plays an important role in the etiology of depressive symptoms. The current study investigates the influence of emotional stimuli on working memory (WM) in adolescents with dysphoric symptomatology (DS). Twenty-five adolescents with DS and 40 adolescents with no dysphoric symptomatology (NDS) completed a memory-guided eye movement task. This task assessed the influence of irrelevant affective information on WM processes during high and low cognitive load. Latency analyses showed that, in the high load WM condition, negative distractors disturbed WM performance in adolescents with NDS, but not in adolescents with DS. Accuracy analyses revealed that adolescents with NDS had higher accuracy rates in the presence of positive distractors relative to negative and neutral distractors, and in comparison to adolescents with DS. The findings indicated altered WM performance in the context of emotional distractors in adolescents with DS and may contribute to theoretical knowledge and early prevention of youth depression.

What accounts for poor functioning in people with schizophrenia: a re-evaluation of the contributions of neurocognitive v. attitudinal and motivational factors

BACKGROUND

Neurocognitive deficits are often seen as core features of schizophrenia, and as primary determinants of poor functioning. Yet, our clinical observations suggest that individuals who score within the impaired range on standardized tests can reliably perform better in complex real-world situations, especially when performance is embedded within a positive socio-affective context.

METHODS

We analyzed literature on the influence of non-neurocognitive factors on test performance in order to clarify their contributions.

RESULTS

We identified seven non-neurocognitive factors that significantly contribute to neurocognitive test performance: avolition, dysfunctional attitudes, effort, stress, negative emotions, asociality, and disorganized symptoms. We then proposed an alternative model based on dysfunctional (e.g. defeatist) attitudes and their consequences for motivation and sustained task engagement. We demonstrated that these factors account for substantial variance in negative symptoms, neurocognitive test performance, and functional outcomes. We then demonstrated that recovery-oriented cognitive therapy - which is derived from this alternative model and primarily targets dysfunctional beliefs - has been successful in the treatment of low functioning individuals with schizophrenia.

CONCLUSION

The contributions of neurocognitive impairments to poor real-world functioning in people with schizophrenia may be overstated in the literature, and may even be limited relative to non-neurocognitive factors. We offer suggestions for further research to more precisely quantify the contributions of attitudinal/motivation v. neurocognitive factors in schizophrenia.

The combined influence of cognitions in adolescent depression: Biases of interpretation, self-evaluation, and memory

OBJECTIVES

Depression is characterized by a range of systematic negative biases in thinking and information processing. These biases are believed to play a causal role in the aetiology and maintenance of depression, and it has been proposed that the combined effect of cognitive biases may have greater impact on depression than individual biases alone. Yet little is known about how these biases interact during adolescence when onset is most common.

METHODS

In this study, adolescents were recruited from the community (n = 212) and from a Child And Adolescent Mental Health Service (n = 84). Participants completed measures of depressive symptoms, interpretation bias, self-evaluation, and recall memory. These included the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire, Ambiguous Scenarios Test for Depression in Adolescents, Self-Description Questionnaire, and an immediate recall task. The clinically referred sample also took part in a formal diagnostic interview.

RESULTS

Individual cognitive biases were significantly intercorrelated and associated with depression severity. The combination of cognitive biases was a stronger predictor of depression severity than individual biases alone, predicting 60% of the variance in depression severity across all participants. There were two significant predictors, interpretation bias and negative self-evaluation; however, almost all of the variance was explained by negative self-evaluation.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings support the interrelationship and additive effect of biases in explaining depression and suggest that understanding the way in which cognitive biases interact could be important in advancing methods of identification, early intervention, and treatment.

PRACTITIONER POINTS

A combination of biases was a better predictor of depression symptom severity than individual biases. Interpretation and self-evaluation were better predictors of depression symptom severity than recall. Negative self-evaluation was the strongest individual predictor of depression symptom severity. Negative self-evaluation was able to classify depressed from non-depressed adolescents. The cross-sectional design of the study precludes any conclusions about the potential causal role of these variables. Different tasks were used to assess different types of cognitive bias meaning that the possible linear operation along an information processing 'pathway' could not be examined.

A Reformulated Architecture of Cognitive Risks for Psychopathology: Common and Specific Dimensions and Links to Internalizing Outcomes in Adolescence

Multiple cognitive risk products (dysfunctional attitudes [DA], negative inferential style [NIS], self-criticism, dependency, rumination) predict internalizing disorders; however, an optimal structure to assess these risks is unknown. We evaluated the fit, construct validity, and utility of a bifactor, single, and correlated factor model in a community sample of 382 adolescents (age 11-15 years; 59% female). The bifactor, hierarchical single, and correlated factor models all fit well. The bifactor model included a common factor (c), capturing covariance across all cognitive risk measures, and specific latent factors for DA, NIS, dependency and rumination. Construct validity of these factor structures was evaluated with external validators, including depression and anxious arousal (AA) symptoms, positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), and onset of depression diagnostic onset over 2 years. C was associated with higher depression, NA, and AA; lower PA; and predicted depressive episodes. Hierarchical single and correlated factor models also related to external validators.

Feeling left out: depressed adolescents may atypically recruit emotional salience and regulation networks during social exclusion

Depression is associated with negative attention and attribution biases and maladaptive emotion responsivity and regulation, which adversely impact self-evaluations and interpersonal relationships. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the neural substrates of these impairments. We compared neural activity recruited by 126 clinically depressed and healthy adolescents (ages 11-17 years) during social exclusion (Exclusion > Inclusion) using Cyberball. Results revealed significant interaction effects within left anterior insula (AI)/inferior frontal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus. Insula hyperresponsivity was associated with peer exclusion for depressed adolescents but peer inclusion for healthy adolescents. In additional, healthy adolescents recruited greater lateral temporal activity during peer exclusion. Complementary effect size analyses within independent parcellations offered converging evidence, as well as highlighted medium-to-large effects within subgenual/ventral anterior cingulate cortex and lateral prefrontal, lateral temporal and lateral parietal regions implicated in emotion regulation. Depressogenic neural patterns were associated with negative self-perceptions and negative information processing biases. These findings suggest a neural mechanism underlying cognitive biases in depression, as reflected by emotional hyperresponsivity and maladaptive regulation/reappraisal of negative social evaluative information. This study lends further support for salience and central executive network dysfunction underlying social threat processing, and in particular, highlights the anterior insula as a key region of disturbance in adolescent depression.

Integrating the Hopelessness Model and the Response Style Theory in an Adolescent Sample

Integrations of cognitive models of depression, specifically, the hopelessness model (Abramson et al. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 358-372, 1989) and the response style theory (Nolen-Hoecksema et al. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 405-422, 1992) have been suggested but no previous study has compared the integrations of these models with each other and the original models. Further, previous studies only tested the associations between composite scores of inferences, from the hopelessness model, and rumination (incl. brooding and reflection), from the response style theory. Thus, a 3-wave study using self-report instruments with 519 adolescents was conducted (mean age_{Wave 1} = 16.09 years; SD = 0.70; 62.7% female; 72.8% European American, 14.7% African-American, 5.4% Latino, 4.4% mixed race/ethnicity, 1.4% Asian/Pacific Islander, 0.8% Native American, and 0.6% identified as "other"). The school serves predominantly working to middle class families and almost one third of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch programs. AMOS and RMediation were used to calculate and compare five different theory-driven models. The findings of the study provide support for an integrated model in which both brooding and reflection are influenced by individual inferences and interact with individual inferences while affecting depressive symptoms. In addition, reflection plays an unexpectedly important role in this integrated model. Age and cognitive development are discussed as possible explanations for this finding.

School-Aged Children's Cognitive Interdependence as a Prospective Link Between Their Depressive Symptoms and Physiological Stress Reactivity

Associations between children's depressive symptoms and physiological stress reactivity have been identified across many investigations. Similarly, a large body of literature explores the cognitive correlates of depressive symptomatology in childhood. To date, few studies conducted with children have integrated these approaches. In the present study, we examine a well-documented correlate of depression in adults; low cognitive interdependence (as measured via pronoun use, or we-ratio), in a child population. We explore the relation of low cognitive interdependence to children's concurrent depressive symptoms as well as their concurrent and later stress reactivity. At Time 1, we assessed school-aged children's (N = 60) depressive symptoms and children's we-ratio from an interview about their school experiences. Two weeks later (Time 2), children provided salivary cortisol samples before and after a stressor task. At Time 3 (1.5 years later), children provided cortisol samples before and after completing a different stressor task. Children's depressive symptoms were concurrently associated with lower we-ratio, which in turn was prospectively, but not concurrently, associated with higher cortisol reactivity, acting as an indirect effect between depression and later reactivity. These findings suggest that low levels of cognitive interdependence may be one mechanism by which children's depressive symptoms forecast heightened reactivity to stress.

Co-Rumination Exacerbates Stress Generation among Adolescents with Depressive Symptoms

Through stress generation, individuals' own thoughts and behaviors can actually lead to increases in their experience of stress. Unfortunately, stress generation is especially common among individuals who are already suffering from elevated depressive symptoms. However, despite the acknowledgement that some individuals with depressive symptoms generate greater stress than others, few studies have identified specific factors that could exacerbate stress generation among individuals with depressive symptoms. The present study examines co-rumination as a factor that might exacerbate stress generation among adolescents with depressive symptoms using a short-term longitudinal design. Considering these processes among adolescents was critical given that many youth experience increases in depressive symptoms at this developmental stage and that co-rumination also becomes more common at adolescence. Participants were 628 adolescents (326 girls; 302 boys) who reported on their depressive symptoms, experiences of stress, and co-rumination with a best friend. Interpersonal stressors (peer and family stress) and non-interpersonal stressors (school and sports stress) were assessed. Consistent with past research, adolescents with depressive symptoms experienced greater interpersonal and non-interpersonal stress over time. Importantly, co-rumination interacted with both depressive symptoms and gender in predicting increases in peer stress. Depressive symptoms predicted the generation of peer stress only for girls who reported high levels of co-rumination with friends. Implications for protecting youth with depressive symptoms against stress generation are discussed.

Zurückweisungsempfindlichkeit bei Jugendlichen mit Depression

Zusammenfassung. Fragestellung: Als Zurückweisungsempfindlichkeit (ZE) wird die Disposition bezeichnet, Zurückweisung ängstlich zu erwarten, als wahrscheinlicher wahrzunehmen und daraufhin überzureagieren. In Studien konnte bereits gezeigt werden, dass Zurückweisungsempfindlichkeit bei depressiv erkrankten Erwachsenen erhöht ist und depressive Symptome bei Jugendlichen begünstigt. Bisher liegen jedoch noch keine Befunde zu dispositionellen Unterschieden hinsichtlich der Zurückweisungsempfindlichkeit bei depressiv erkrankten Jugendlichen vor. Methodik: In der vorliegenden Studie wurde daher erstmals mittels eines Fragebogens zur Zurückweisungsempfindlichkeit für Kinder und Jugendliche (FZE-K) geprüft, ob sich zwischen depressiven Jugendlichen und gesunden Jugendlichen Unterschiede in der Zurückweisungsempfindlichkeit und den Handlungsintentionen nach einer Zurückweisungssituation finden. Eingeschlossen wurden n = 28 Jugendliche mit Depression sowie n = 32 gesunde Jugendliche im Alter von 12 bis 17 Jahren. Ergebnisse: Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass depressive Jugendliche eine höhere ZE aufweisen, Zurückweisung ängstlicher erwarten und die Wahrscheinlichkeit, zurückgewiesen zu werden, als höher einschätzen. Zudem gaben depressive Jugendliche im Vergleich zu der Kontrollgruppe an, stärker mit Selbstattribution und Resignation auf eine Zurückweisung zu reagieren. Diskussion: Die Ergebnisse lassen sich gut in das klinische Bild und in kognitive Theorien der Depression einordnen. In zukünftigen Studien sollte untersucht werden, ob sich entsprechende Interventionen positiv auf den Verlauf depressiver Erkrankungen auswirken.