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Research on depression and effort has suggested “depressive blunting”—lower cardiovascular reactivity in response to challenges and stressors. Many studies, however, find null effects or higher reactivity. The present research draws upon motivational intensity theory, a broad model of effort that predicts cases in which depressive symptoms should increase or decrease effort. Because depressive symptoms can influence task-difficulty appraisals—people see tasks as subjectively harder—people high in depressive symptoms should engage higher effort at objectively easier levels of difficulty but also quit sooner. A sample of adults completed a mental effort challenge with four levels of difficulty, from very easy to difficult-but-feasible. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the CESD and DASS; effort-related cardiac activity was assessed via markers of contractility (e.g., the cardiac pre-ejection period [PEP]) obtained with impedance cardiography. The findings supported the theory’s predictions. When the task was relatively easier, people high in depressive symptoms showed higher contractility (shorter PEP), consistent with greater effort. When the task was relatively harder, people high in depressive symptoms showed diminished contractility, consistent with quitting. The results suggest that past research has been observing a small part of a larger trajectory of trying and quitting, and they illustrate the value of a theoretically grounded analysis of depressive symptoms and effort-related cardiac activity.

The primary aim of the study was to examine whether dimensions of perfectionism—socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP) and self-oriented perfectionism (SOP)—were related to causal attributions, and to what extent event-specific attributions about social interactions were related to mood. Experience sampling methodology was used to examine event-specific attributions about negative social interactions and mood in daily life. SPP and SOP had different relationships with trait attributional styles. Although neither SPP nor SOP were related to event-specific attributions, SOP moderated the covariation of negative attributions and sadness: higher scores on SOP were associated with a stronger relation between negative attributions and sadness. Additionally, SPP was positively related to the proportion of negative social interactions.

This study developed and provided initial validation for the Support for Healthy Lifestyle (SHeL), a set of scales designed to measure adolescent-perceived social support of healthy eating and physical activity. Item pool development utilized a prior focus group study of adolescents' perceptions of socially supportive behavior and a review of the literature on social support for health behavior change in adolescents. Exploratory factor analysis of the item pool completed by 220 adolescents, internal consistency estimates, and expert review of items and consensus resulted in 9 scales for the SHeL: Family Healthy Eating Support, Family Physical Activity Support, Family Hypocritical Control, Peer Health Eating Support, Peer Physical Activity Support, Peer Undermining, Professional Healthy Eating Support, Professional Physical Activity Support, and Professional General Support. Scale internal reliability estimates were α = 0.73–0.96. Supporting construct validity, the SHeL showed a pattern of stronger correlations between measures of the same source (parent/peer) and target behavior (healthy eating/physical activity) and stronger correlations with corresponding Sallis scales vis-a-vis other Sallis scales, with exceptions related to peer support for healthy eating. Divergent validity was somewhat limited, including in two instances, the SHeL scale was more strongly correlated with another SHeL scale. Supporting criterion validity, often the SHeL scales were correlated with related health behaviors. This study provided important psychometric information for a new measurement of social support for health behavior for adolescents. Further research with larger, more diverse, and treatment-seeking populations is needed to provide further validation of the SHeL and to begin to establish normative scores.