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The hopelessness theory, Beck's cognitive theory, and the response styles theory dominate our understanding and the treatment of depression in adolescents. However, research supporting them is largely based on White individuals. Further, the associations between stressors, cognitive vulnerabilities, and depressive symptoms in Black adolescents are not as one would expect based on the predictions from those theories. Both raise the question of if and to what degree these theories and previous findings can be generalized to Black adolescents. Additionally, without a theoretical basis, clinicians regularly use interventions developed based on one theory to influence vulnerabilities described in another theory. Thus, the purpose of our study was to examine the structure of an integrated cognitive stress-vulnerability model as well as the strengths of associations between stressors, cognitive vulnerabilities, and depressive symptoms in Black and White adolescents. In our study, 295 Black (37% female) and 213 White (49% female) ninth-grade students from a public high school participated. Network analyses demonstrated that the three original cognitive theories of depression can and should be integrated and that each variable we examined is comparably relevant for Black and White adolescents. At the same time, the structure of the two integrated networks differed significantly among Black and White adolescents, exhibiting specific distinctions at four edge levels. Furthermore, the predictability of the network is notably lower for Black adolescents than for White adolescents. Important theoretical and clinical implications can be derived., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Introduction: Stress generation suggests a reciprocal relationship between depression and prospective stressful life events. However, the applicability of stress generation to anxiety disorders has been understudied, particularly among youth. We address this gap by examining stress generation in youth at high-risk of developing anxiety disorders., Methods: Participants were one-hundred thirty-six at-risk youth ( M age = 8.69, 84.6% Caucasian; 55.9% female), each of whom had a parent with an anxiety disorder. We examined the role of an anxiety disorder diagnosis, anxiety symptoms, and cognitive distortions in youth's prospective one and six-year stressful life events (i.e., stress generation)., Results: Anxiety symptoms and cognitive distortions were significant predictors of one-year total dependent stress. Anxiety diagnosis and anxiety symptoms were significant predictors of one-year dependent interpersonal stress. Anxiety diagnosis and anxiety symptoms were significant predictors of six-year independent stress., Conclusion: Support for the stress generation model was found in high-risk youth, but only over a one-year period. This suggests important effects of anxiety and cognitive distortions on stress generation, though their implications might be time-capped.

Negative emotionality (NE) and multiple cognitive vulnerabilities (CVs) (negative inferential style, brooding, self-criticism, dependency, dysfunctional attitudes) independently predict internalizing outcomes. The present study examined whether NE and CVs could be structurally integrated into a common factor reflecting shared variance across risks, and specific factors reflecting unique variance in risks. We evaluated the validity and utility of this integrated model via prospective prediction of future depression and anxiety compared to alternative models (NE and CVs individually, a correlated factor model). Youth from a large community sample (N = 571; M = 13.58 years old; 55% girls, 44% boys) reported on NE and CVs. Depression and anxiety symptoms based on youth report, and disorder onset based on youth and caregiver diagnostic interviews were assessed over a 1½ years follow-up. Results supported a structural model including a general NE-CV dimension and specific dimensions for NE, common cognitive risk, negative inferential style, and brooding; model invariance was obtained from late childhood through late adolescence and for girls and boys. The integrated general NE-CV factor more consistently and strongly predicted future depressive (β = 0.58) and anxiety (β = 0.56) symptoms, and onsets of depression (OR = 1.81) and anxiety (OR = 2.23) relative to NE and CV risk dimensions across alternative models (ps < .01). The general NE-CV dimension represents an important means to efficiently represent transdiagnostic risk for internalizing outcomes among youth., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The mechanisms of the well-documented relationship between maternal depression and offspring psychopathology are not yet fully understood. Building upon cognitive theories of depression and the modeling hypothesis, path analyses tested whether maternal depression history predicted adolescent internalizing symptoms via the transmission of cognitive vulnerabilities within a sample of 635 adolescents (M age  = 13.1 years, range = 11.2-17.2 years; 53% female; 48% African American/Black) and their primary female caregivers. Maternal depression history did not directly predict adolescent symptoms. Two significant indirect effects were found; maternal depression history was associated with maternal negative cognitive style, which predicted greater adolescent negative generalization, which, in turn, predicted adolescents' greater depressive and anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that the transmission of cognitive vulnerabilities may link maternal depression and offspring internalizing psychopathology.

Background: Cognitive vulnerability theories of depression outline multiple, distinct inferential biases constitutive of cognitive vulnerability to depression. These include attributing negative events to internal, stable, and global factors, assuming that negative events will lead to further negative consequences, and inferring that negative events reflect negative characteristics about the self. Extant research has insufficiently examined these biases as distinct, limiting our understanding of how the individual cognitive vulnerability components interrelate and confer risk for depression symptoms. Thus, we conducted exploratory network analyses to examine the relationships among the five components of negative cognitive style and explore how components may differentially relate to depressive symptoms in adolescents., Methods: Participants completed measures of negative cognitive style twice over a two-year period. We estimated Graphical Gaussian Models using contemporaneous data and computed a cross-lagged panel network using temporal data from baseline and 2-year follow-up., Results: Results reveal interesting structural dynamics among facets of negative cognitive style and depressive symptoms. For example, results point to biases towards stable and future-oriented inferences as highly influential among negative cognitive style components. The temporal model revealed the internal attributions component to be heavily influenced by depressive symptoms among adolescents, whereas stable and global attributions most influenced future symptoms., Conclusions: This study presents novel approaches for investigating cognitive style and depression. From this perspective, perhaps more precise predictions can be made about how cognitive risk factors will lead to the development or worsening of psychopathology., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Whether cognitive vulnerability to depression exists along a continuum of severity or as a qualitatively discrete phenomenological entity has direct bearing on theoretical formulations of risk for depression and clinical risk assessment. This question is of particular relevance to adolescence, given that cognitive vulnerability appears to coalesce and rates of depression begin to rise markedly during this period of development. Although a dimensional view is often assumed, it is necessary to submit this assumption to direct empirical evaluation. Taxometric analysis is a family of statistical techniques developed directly to test such assumptions. The present study applied taxometric methods to address this question in a community sample of early adolescents (n = 485), drawing on three indices of cognitive vulnerability to depression (i.e., negative inferential style, ruminative response style, self-referent information processing). The results of three taxometric analyses (i.e., mean above minus below a cut [MAMBAC], maximum eigenvalue [MAXEIG], and latent mode [L-Mode]) were consistent in unambiguously supporting a dimensional conceptualization of this construct. The latent structure of the tested indices of cognitive vulnerability to depression in adolescence appears to exist along a continuum of severity rather than as a discrete clinical entity., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Research exploring how cognitive risk- and protective factors relate following remission from internalizing disorders suggests a central role for resilience. However, it remains unclear what constitutes resilience in this context. Furthermore, previous studies have typically relied on cross-sectional data which do not allow to map the temporal dynamics of such relations. Using a seven-day experience sampling period in 85 remitted depressed patients, we examined the interplay between five transdiagnostic vulnerability- and protective factors in daily life. We present a temporal, contemporaneous, and a between-subjects network, providing an in-depth analysis of how these factors relate to daily life fluctuations in residual symptomatology. Furthermore, we test the role of positive affect as a main resilience factor. Resilience uniquely predicted all other factors over time (temporal network). Higher levels of resilience were related to less momentary use of rumination, more deployment of positive appraisal, and lower occurrence of residual symptoms (contemporaneous network). Participants scoring high on resilience mostly engaged in positive appraisal (between-subjects network). Similar structures were obtained when substituting self-reported resilience by positive affect. This highlights the importance of resilience, and in particular, positive affectivity, to cope with stressors following remission. This may be fostered by facilitating the use of positive appraisal., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

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.

Major Depressive Disorder is a common mental illness with rates increasing during adolescence. This has led researchers to examine developmental antecedents of depression. This study examined the association between depressive symptoms and the interaction between two empirically supported risk factors for depression: poor recovery of the biological stress system as measured through heart rate and cortisol, and cognitive vulnerabilities as indexed by rumination and a negative cognitive style. Adolescents (n = 127; 49 % female) completed questionnaires and a social stress task to elicit a stress response measured with neuroendocrine (cortisol) and autonomic nervous system (heart rate) endpoints. The findings indicated that higher depressive symptoms were associated with the combination of higher cognitive vulnerabilities and lower cortisol and heart rate recovery. These findings can enhance our understanding of stress responses, lead to personalized treatment, and provide a nuanced understanding of depression in adolescence.

The current study tested the cognitive vulnerability-stress component of hopelessness theory using a 'weakest link' approach (e.g. an individual is as cognitively vulnerable to depression as his or her most depressogenic attributional style makes him or her) in a sample of Chinese university students. Participants included 520 students in Changsha. During an initial assessment, participants completed measures assessing weakest link, depressive symptoms and occurrence of negative events once a month for 6 months. Results from hierarchical linear modelling analyses showed that higher levels of weakest link scores were associated with greater increases in depressive symptoms following the occurrence of negative events. Higher weakest link level was associated with greater increases in depressive symptoms over time. These results provide support for the applicability of the 'weakest link' approach to the hopelessness theory to Chinese university students., (Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

There is growing evidence that brooding rumination plays a key role in the intergenerational transmission of major depressive disorder (MDD) and may be an endophenotype for depression risk. However, less is known about the mechanisms underlying this role. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to examine levels of brooding in children of mothers with a history of MDD (n = 129) compared to children of never depressed mothers (n = 126) and to determine whether the variation in a gene known to influence hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning--corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRHR1)--would moderate the link between maternal MDD and children's levels of brooding. We predicted children of mothers with a history of MDD would exhibit higher levels of brooding than children of mothers with no lifetime depression history but that this link would be stronger among children carrying no copies of the protective CRHR1 TAT haplotype. Our results supported these hypotheses and suggest that the development of brooding among children of depressed mothers, particularly children without the protective CRHR1 haplotype, may serve as an important mechanism of risk for the intergenerational transmission of depression.

Given that depression risk intensifies in adolescence, examining associates of depressive symptoms during the shift from childhood to adolescence is important for expanding knowledge about the etiology of depression symptoms and disorder. A longitudinal youth report was employed to examine the trajectory of both the content and structure of positive and negative schemas in adolescence and also whether these schemas could prospectively predict depressive symptoms and youth-reported resilience. One hundred and ninety-eight participants (aged 9 to 14) were recruited from four schools to complete measures of youth depressive symptoms, resilience, and schema content and structure. Those who consented to a follow-up study completed the same measures online (50 participants completed). Negative and positive schema content and structure were related over time. After controlling depressive symptoms/resilience at Time 1, negative schema content was the only significant predictor (trend level) of depressive symptoms and resilience at Time 2. Implications for cognitive theories and clinical practice are discussed.

Although research implicates pubertal processes in the emergence of the sex difference in depression during adolescence, few studies have examined how cognitive and affective vulnerabilities influence the effect of pubertal timing on depressive symptoms. The current study prospectively examined whether early pubertal timing predicted increases in depressive symptoms among adolescents with more negative cognitive styles and lower emotional clarity, and whether this risk was specific to adolescent girls. In a diverse sample of 318 adolescents, early pubertal timing predicted increases in depressive symptoms among adolescent boys and girls with more negative cognitive styles and adolescent girls with poor emotional clarity. These findings suggest that earlier pubertal maturation may heighten the risk of depression for adolescents with pre-existing vulnerabilities to depression, and that early maturing adolescent girls with lower levels of emotional clarity may be particularly vulnerable to depressive symptoms, representing one pathway through which the sex difference in depression may emerge., (Copyright © 2013 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cognitive variables contribute to the etiology of affective disorders. With the differentiation between explicit and implicit measures some studies have indicated underlying depressogenic schemata even in bipolar disorders. We tested for differences in implicit motives and cognitive variables between patients with remitted unipolar and bipolar disorder compared to controls and in a high-risk sample. Additionally we investigated whether affective symptoms relate to those variables. We cross-sectionally examined N=164 participants (53 with bipolar disorder, 58 with major depression, and 53 without affective disorders) and a high-risk sample (N=49) of adolescent children of either parents with unipolar or bipolar disorder or of healthy parents. The Multi-Motive-Grid was used to measure the implicit motives achievement, affiliation, and power, in addition to the cognitive measures of self-esteem, dysfunctional attitudes, and perfectionism. Unipolar and bipolar groups did not differ from healthy controls in implicit motives but showed higher scores in the cognitive factors. Adolescents at high risk for unipolar disorder showed lower scores in the power and achievement motives compared to adolescents at low risk. Subsyndromal depressive symptoms were related to the cognitive variables in both samples. Our results underline the importance of cognitive-behavioral treatment for both unipolar and bipolar disorder., (© 2013 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.)

Background: Relatively little is known about psychological predictors of the onset of mania among individuals with bipolar disorder, particularly during episodes of depression. In the present study we investigated attributional style as a predictor of onset of hypomanic, manic or mixed episodes among bipolar adults receiving psychosocial treatment for depression. We hypothesized that "extreme" (i.e., excessively pessimistic or optimistic) attributions would predict a greater likelihood of developing an episode of mood elevation., Method: Outpatients with DSM-IV bipolar I or II disorder (N = 105) enrolled in the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) were randomly allocated to one of three types of intensive psychotherapy for depression or a brief psychoeducational intervention. Patients completed a measure of attributional style at baseline and were followed prospectively for up to one year. All analyses were by intent to treat., Results: Logistic regressions and Cox proportional hazards models indicated that extreme (both positively- and negatively-valenced) attributions predicted a higher likelihood of (and shorter time until) transition from depression to a (hypo)manic or mixed episode (ps < .04), independent of the effects of manic or depressive symptom severity at baseline. Extreme attributions were also retrospectively associated with more lifetime episodes of (hypo)mania and depression (ps < .05)., Conclusions: Evaluating extreme attributions may help clinicians to identify patients who are at risk for experiencing a more severe course of bipolar illness, and who may benefit from treatments that introduce greater cognitive flexibility., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: We examined the association of cognitive vulnerability to depression with changes in homogeneous measures of depressive symptoms., Methods: Baseline and 1-year follow-up data were obtained from 2981 participants of the Netherlands study of depression and anxiety. Multivariate regression analyses were carried out on cognitive reactivity, locus of control and implicit and explicit self-depressive associations in combination with negative life events. The purpose of this analysis was to predict changes on the mood/cognition and anxiety/arousal subscales of the inventory of depressive symptomatology - self report., Results: Cognitive reactivity, locus of control and explicit self-depressive associations were independently associated with changes in depressive symptoms after adjustment for covariates and baseline severity (all p<0.01). Negative life-events interacted with cognitive vulnerability to depression to predict depressive symptoms. Locus of control (b1=0.16, SE=0.02, η(2)=0.01; b2=0.10, SE=0.02, η(2)=0.004, F=8.69, p<0.01) and explicit self-depressive associations (b1=0.10, SE=0.03, η(2)=0.02; b2=0.02, SE=0.04, F=7.50, p<0.01) were more strongly associated with the cognitive (b1) than the somatic (b2) symptom dimension of depression., Limitations: The study sample is over-inclusive of depressed patients. Therefore it might be problematic generalizing the findings to the general population., Conclusion: Cognitive etiological factors may play a role in a "cognitive" subtype of depression. The findings strengthen the notion that homogeneous measures of depressive symptoms enable a greater degree of discrimination between subtypes than a multidimensional conception of depression., (© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

AbstractObjectivesMethodResultsConclusionCare-related beliefs are considered risk factors for decreased mental health in family caregivers of people with dementia. However, their exact role in the caregiver stress process remains unclear. Hence, we tested a cognitive vulnerability-stress model of depression and anxiety in family caregivers of people with dementia.A cross-sectional study was conducted using baseline data from a caregiver intervention trial (N = 322). Within Bayesian moderated mediation analysis, we examined mediation of effects of objective demands (severity of dementia, challenging behavior, caregiving intensity, caregiving duration) on depression and anxiety via subjective caregiver burden and moderation by care-related beliefs in four domains (dysfunctional caregiving standards, dysfunctional attitudes towards dementia, functional self-care-related beliefs, functional acceptance-related beliefs).The relation between objective demands and subjective burden was amplified by dysfunctional caregiving standards and dysfunctional attitudes towards dementia and mitigated by functional self-care-related beliefs. Further, functional acceptance-related beliefs attenuated the effect of subjective caregiver burden on depression.The study provides preliminary evidence for a cognitive vulnerability-stress model of depression and anxiety in family caregivers of people with dementia. The results indicate that the four-domain model of care-related beliefs is a valuable framework for future research and may serve as a heuristic model for cognitive-behavioral therapy in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rumination predicts wellbeing and is a core construct in the cognitive vulnerabilities to depression literature. Traditional measures of depressive rumination (e.g., Ruminative Responses Subscale, RRS; Treynor et al., 2003) rarely include items capturing thoughts about problems or events, even though these thoughts are in measures of related constructs (e.g., co-rumination, post-event processing). We created the Rumination on Problems Questionnaire (RPQ) for use on its own and with the RRS to capture rumination about problems and to align with measures of other ruminative and repetitive thinking processes. Our cross-sectional study of 927 undergraduates revealed the RPQ had a single factor, good internal reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and significantly predicted depression, anxiety, and stress controlling for the RRS and co-rumination. Researchers and clinicians interested in rumination or cognitive vulnerabilities may wish to include the RPQ in their assessments. Measuring and addressing problem-focused rumination may be an important transdiagnostic treatment and prevention goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic did not cause the severe and extensive mental health crisis predicted by some experts. However, this does not mean that everyone was resilient. The purpose of this study was to try to identify subgroups of people that may have experienced more severe and negative trajectories of symptoms during this time. To this end, we examined a host of individual difference factors (e.g., age, gender, race, country, parental status, medical conditions, lost wages, perceived support, initial symptom levels, and cognitive vulnerability) using a 1-year longitudinal design with 8 time points and participants (n = 233) from over 20 countries. We were unable to identify a single moderator associated with a robust and increasingly negative trajectory of depressive and anxious symptoms throughout the COVID interval. These results underscore the need for better theories of mental illness, stronger research designs that do not rely on simple cross-sectional between-group comparisons, and more caution when predicting mental health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual differences in vulnerability to depression are still underexplored in athletes. We tested the influence of different brooding and reflective rumination profiles (i.e., repetitive thought processes in response to low/depressed mood) on the odds of experiencing clinically relevant depressive symptoms in competitive athletes (N = 286). The Patient Health Questionnaire–9 and the Ruminative Responses Scale–short form were utilized to measure depression and rumination, respectively. Compared to athletes with a low brooding/reflection profile, athletes with a high brooding/reflection profile had significantly higher odds of experiencing clinical levels of depressive symptoms (OR = 13.40, 95% CI = 3.81–47.11). A high reflection/low brooding profile was not, however, related to increased odds of depressive symptoms. Future research could extend our findings by exploring determinants of ruminative tendencies, especially brooding, in athletes. Furthermore, psychological interventions targeting rumination could be examined as a potential prevention and treatment approach to tackling depressive symptoms in athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale measures depression related enduring beliefs and is one of the central measures of cognitive behavioral (CBT) research and theory. It has been the central marker of etiological claims of CBT, and so any change to the understanding of the composition of the DAS would have potentially far-reaching implications for a large body of literature. We sought to capitalize on advances in psychometric techniques since the original 100-item DAS was last analyzed in a sufficiently large clinical sample to provide a definitive measurement model of this important instrument. Beyond the two dimensions usually found on the shorter forms of the scale, we identified the following subscales: imperatives, cognitive flexibility, and negative expectancy. This richer and more precise DAS structure renews its potential to meet the challenge of predicting who is prone to develop depression or experience a recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present narrative review has covered the current evidence regarding the role of cognitive impairments during the early phase of major depressive disorder (MDD), attempting to describe the cognitive features in childhood, adolescence and in at-risk individuals. These issues were analyzed considering the trait, scar and state hypotheses of MDD by examining the cold and hot dimensions, the latter explained in relation to the current psychological theoretical models of MDD. This search was performed on several electronic databases up to August 2022. Although the present review is the first to have analyzed both cold and hot cognitive impairments considering the trait, scar and state hypotheses, we found that current evidence did not allow to exclusively confirm the validity of one specific hypothesis since several equivocal and discordant results have been proposed in childhood and adolescence samples. Further studies are needed to better characterize possible cognitive dysfunctions assessing more systematically the impairments of cold, hot and social cognition domains and their possible interaction in a developmental perspective. An increased knowledge on these topics will improve the definition of clinical endophenotypes of enhanced risk to progression to MDD and, to hypothesize preventive and therapeutic strategies to reduce negative influences on psychosocial functioning and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a frequent mental affective disorder. Cognitive vulnerability models propose two major cognitive risk factors that favor the onset and severity of depressive symptoms. These include a pronounced self-focus, as well as a negative emotional processing bias. According to two-process models of cognitive vulnerability, these two risk factors are not independent from each other, but affect information processing already at an early perceptual processing level. Simultaneously, a processing advantage for self-related positive information including better memory for positive than negative information has been associated with mental health and well-being. This perspective paper introduces a research framework that discusses how EEG-ERP methodology can serve as a standardized tool for the decoding of negative and positive processing biases and their potential use as risk markers of cognitive vulnerability for depression, on the one hand, and as protective indicators of well-being, on the other hand. Previous results from EEG-ERP studies investigating the time-course of self-referential emotional processing are introduced, summarized, and discussed with respect to the specificity of depression-related processing and the importance of EEG-ERP-based experimental testing for well-being and the prevention and treatment of depressive disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing a better understanding of the structure of the hierarchy is a primary goal of neuroscience. Recent research has highlighted a connectome gradient dysfunction in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, it remains unclear whether these changes exist prior to the onset of the disease. We used a newly developed resting-state functional connectivity (FC)-based gradient approach to evaluate the principal functional gradient in individuals with cognitive vulnerability to depression (CVD) and healthy controls (HC). We further examined the associations between CVD-related alterations in the principal connectome gradient with multiple cognitive behavioral variables. Individuals with CVD showed significantly lower functional gradient scores in the left ventral insular gyrus than HC. The left ventral insular gyrus gradient score was positively correlated with the total attentional control scale as well as the dimension of attentional control. The left ventral insular gyrus gradient score was negatively correlated with the total BHS scale, the dimension of expectations, the total RRS scale, and the depression-related dimension. The preliminary results indicate that alterations in the principal functional gradient in individuals with CVD might be a biomarker of cognitive vulnerability to MDD, and the alterations may exist prior to the onset of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The hopelessness theory is one of the most studied cognitive vulnerability theories of depression. It proposes that risk for depression is conferred by attributing the causes of negative events to global, internal, stable causes and inferring future negative consequences and negative characteristics about oneself from these events. Nearly all research has operationalized cognitive style using individuals' responses to hypothetical events at single timepoints. Far less research has explored attributions of specific events as they occur, none of which has involved clinical samples.Methods: This study aimed to examine if measuring event-specific attributions clarifies the relationship between negative cognitive style and clinical symptoms. Adults (n = 51), who had attempted suicide at least once in the year prior, were recruited from the community via online forums related to suicide risk. Participants provided nightly ratings of hopelessness and attributions of the most stressful event that day for four weeks.Results: The daily diary composite measure of cognitive style was more strongly associated with hopelessness and depressive symptoms than the trait measure. Daily attributions fully mediated the relationship between trait cognitive style and hopelessness.Limitations: The measurement period could not capture the occurrence of a next depressive episode for all participants. Relatedly, we could not account for the precise nature of individual stressors.Conclusions: At a population level, trait measures alone may be a useful risk factor. But, with the goal to move towards more personalized prediction and intervention, more dynamic, ecologically valid, and real time measures may help gain more traction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a frequent mental affective disorder. Cognitive vulnerability models propose two major cognitive risk factors that favor the onset and severity of depressive symptoms. These include a pronounced self-focus, as well as a negative emotional processing bias. According to two-process models of cognitive vulnerability, these two risk factors are not independent from each other, but affect information processing already at an early perceptual processing level. Simultaneously, a processing advantage for self-related positive information including better memory for positive than negative information has been associated with mental health and well-being. This perspective paper introduces a research framework that discusses how EEG-ERP methodology can serve as a standardized tool for the decoding of negative and positive processing biases and their potential use as risk markers of cognitive vulnerability for depression, on the one hand, and as protective indicators of well-being, on the other hand. Previous results from EEG-ERP studies investigating the time-course of self-referential emotional processing are introduced, summarized, and discussed with respect to the specificity of depression-related processing and the importance of EEG-ERP-based experimental testing for well-being and the prevention and treatment of depressive disorders.

Objective: The present study was designed to assess the interplay between depressive cognition, coping‐oriented substance use, and future behavioral disengagement tendencies. Cognitive risk subtypes examined include brooding rumination, attributional bias (internal/stable/global), and dysfunctional attitudes. Method: Individuals were recruited from outpatient treatment settings and met criteria for a unipolar depressive disorder (N = 70; 66% female; 81% White; Mage = 31; SDage = 13.2). Participants completed self‐report measures of brooding rumination, attributional style, dysfunctional attitudes, coping‐oriented substance use, and behavioral disengagement tendencies following a 3‐week period. Results: Brooding rumination, stable attributional style, and dysfunctional attitudes were positively associated with later behavioral disengagement tendencies. Coping‐oriented substance use moderated associations between both internal attributional style, as well as dysfunctional attitudes onto later behavioral disengagement. Conclusions: With regard to stress‐related avoidance, subsyndromal substance use may play a detrimental role among cognitively vulnerable, depressed outpatients when said drug or alcohol use serves as a means of coping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Objectives: Most of the studies that examine cognitive vulnerability tend to focus on cognitive vulnerability for depression and explain anxiety through its intersection with depression. Looming Cognitive Style (LCS) was suggested as a cognitive vulnerability model that is specific for anxiety. According to the model, people who have looming vulnerability tend to evaluate the threats coming from the environment as more overwhelming than they actually are and are constantly hypervigilant to the threat cues that may come from the environment. This pattern plays an important role in both generation and maintenance of anxiety disorders. A two-factor looming vulnerability scale was developed to assess looming cognitive style and the present study aims to adapt the scale into Turkish and examine its psychometric characteristics. Method: The sample is composed of 657 university students between the ages of 18 and 29. The participants were administered LMSQ-R as well as scales that assess anxiety, depression, and worry. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis results supported the original factor structure of the scale providing two distinct, but correlated factors as social and physical looming. In addition to that, total score and subscale scores had moderate to high correlations with other study variables and reliability scores appearing close to the original form provides support for the reliability of the scale. Conclusion: The Turkish version of the LMSQ-R is a reliable and valid scale that can be used with Turkish population.

The goal of the current study was to compare diathesis-stress and transactional models of cognitive vulnerability to depression in samples of Canadian (n = 118) and Chinese (n = 405) adolescents. We utilized a six-month multi-wave, longitudinal design in order to examine whether (a) perceived control moderated the association between the occurrence of dependent interpersonal stressors and subsequent increases in depressive symptoms (i.e., a diathesis-stress perspective) and (b) dependent interpersonal stressors mediated the association between perceived control and subsequent increases in depressive symptoms (i.e., a transactional perspective). Results from idiographic, time-lagged, hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that for Canadian adolescents both diathesis-stress and transactional models were significant predictors of depressive symptomology. When examining the diathesis-stress model, boys, but not girls, who reported lower perceived control, reported higher levels of depressive symptoms following the occurrence of dependent interpersonal stress. Gender differences, however, were not present in the transactional model. In contrast, transactional, but not diathesis-stress, models were significant in Chinese adolescents, and gender differences did not emerge. Overall, these results may reflect culturally-relevant differences in the etiology of depression in Canadian and Chinese adolescents.

Habitual thinking may underpin a heightened disposition to engage in rumination in response to negative mood, a widely held notion that has rarely been directly tested. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether rumination is associated with habitual attributes and whether it is related to an imbalance in habit relative to goal-directed behavior control. University students (N=115) completed self-report questionnaires, a rumination induction paradigm and an outcome devaluation task that measures habitual vs goal-directed behavior control. Greater habitual characteristics of negative thinking (e.g., automaticity, lack of conscious awareness, control, and intent) were associated with ruminative brooding but not ruminative reflection and predicted more persistent dysphoric mood following rumination induction. Rumination was not, however, consistently associated with an imbalance in habit versus goal-directed behavior control. These findings indicate that depression vulnerability may be in the form of rumination being habitually triggered (without awareness or intent) with deleterious effects on mood. Although habitual, rumination may not be related to an imbalance in habit relative to goal-directed behavior control. These findings provide support for current theoretical accounts of rumination and set important boundary conditions in the search for specific factors that contribute to rumination as a habit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated attentional capture by individuals with cognitive vulnerability to depression (CVD), by using irrelevant emotional distractor faces. The hypothesis was that, during face-orientation decision tasks, both happy and sad task-irrelevant emotional faces are more attractive to individuals with CVD than to controls. To test this, both a group of subjects with CVD (n = 45) and a control group without such vulnerability (n = 51) were asked to search for a male face among two presented female faces based on the Chinese affective picture system. Although the attentional processing of emotionally facial expressions had a slower reaction time (RT) than that of neutral facial expressions, the presence of faces that express happiness did not trigger significantly different RTs between both groups. However, the presence of faces that express sadness resulted in longer RTs in individuals with CVD compared to controls. In summary, these results suggest that a focus on negative information and a difficulty to disengage from negative information may be characteristics of individuals with CVD. These characteristics could lead to a higher depression risk. The implications of these findings can be used for cognitive training of attentional bias with the aim to prevent the development of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that social media networks can affect both the physical and mental health of its users. We hypothesized that social media would also be associated with cognitive vulnerability to depression. To test this hypothesis, we used a 3-month pre-post prospective longitudinal design with a sample of undergraduates (n = 105). Results showed that participants who had tweets with a "past focus" (as determined by LIWC software) were more likely to exhibit increases in cognitive vulnerability and depressive symptoms than participants who did not have tweets with a past focus. Increases in cognitive vulnerability were associated with increases in depressive symptoms. However, the effect of Twitter content on future depressive symptoms was not accounted for by increases in cognitive vulnerability. Rather, one's past focus Twitter content had an effect on future depressive symptoms that was independent of its effect on future cognitive vulnerability levels. These results provide further support for the plasticity of cognitive vulnerability in early adulthood as well as corroborate emerging evidence for the association between social media and mental health risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether cognitive vulnerability to depression exists along a continuum of severity or as a qualitatively discrete phenomenological entity has direct bearing on theoretical formulations of risk for depression and clinical risk assessment. This question is of particular relevance to adolescence, given that cognitive vulnerability appears to coalesce and rates of depression begin to rise markedly during this period of development. Although a dimensional view is often assumed, it is necessary to submit this assumption to direct empirical evaluation. Taxometric analysis is a family of statistical techniques developed directly to test such assumptions. The present study applied taxometric methods to address this question in a community sample of early adolescents (n = 485), drawing on three indices of cognitive vulnerability to depression (i.e., negative inferential style, ruminative response style, self-referent information processing). The results of three taxometric analyses (i.e., mean above minus below a cut [MAMBAC], maximum eigenvalue [MAXEIG], and latent mode [L-Mode]) were consistent in unambiguously supporting a dimensional conceptualization of this construct. The latent structure of the tested indices of cognitive vulnerability to depression in adolescence appears to exist along a continuum of severity rather than as a discrete clinical entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The positive effects of expressive writing on both mental and physical health are well documented. However, expressive writing may have the potential to activate negative schemas and facilitate rumination in those at high cognitive risk for depression (Yasinski, Hayes, & Laurenceau, 2016). The current research tested the hypothesis that writing using self-distancing would be more effective than traditional expressive writing in preventing depressive symptoms for those at high cognitive risk for depression. Method: Two studies using undergraduate samples (n = 104 and n = 80) were conducted to test our hypotheses. Both studies used a two-week daily writing experimental design. Results: Contrary to hypotheses, Study 1 found that individuals randomly assigned to a self-distancing writing condition reported greater levels of depressive symptoms than those assigned to a traditional expressive writing condition. The results of Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1. Participants randomly assigned to the self-distancing writing condition reported significantly greater levels of depressive symptoms than those in the expressive writing and no-writing control conditions. The effect of writing condition in Study 2 was driven by those with high levels of cognitive vulnerability. Discussion: Results suggest that writing using self-distancing should not be used for the prevention of depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive distortions are negative biases in thinking that are theorized to represent vulnerability factors for depression and dysphoria. Despite the emphasis placed on cognitive distortions in the context of cognitive behavioural theory and practice, a paucity of research has examined the mechanisms through which they impact depressive symptomatology. Both adaptive and maladaptive styles of humor represent coping strategies that may mediate the relation between cognitive distortions and depressive symptoms. The current study examined the correlations between the frequency and impact of cognitive distortions across both social and achievement-related contexts and types of humor. Cognitive distortions were associated with reduced use of adaptive Affiliative and Self-Enhancing humor styles and increased use of maladaptive Aggressive and Self-Defeating humor. Reduced use of Self-Enhancing humor mediated the relationship between most types of cognitive distortions and depressed mood, indicating that distorted negative thinking may interfere with an individual’s ability to adopt a humorous and cheerful outlook on life (i.e., use Self-Enhancing humor) as a way of regulating emotions and coping with stress, thereby resulting in elevated depressive symptoms. Similarly, Self-Defeating humor mediated the association of the social impact of cognitive distortions with depression, such that this humor style may be used as a coping strategy for dealing with distorted thinking that ultimately backfires and results in increased dysphoria.

The current research tested a new theory of depression that integrates work on sleep and cognition. In general, good sleep is essential for physical and mental health. However, we theorize that sleep can actually increase risk for depressive symptoms in cognitively vulnerable individuals. This is because the negative cognitions generated by these individuals are strengthened and consolidated each night during sleep. Three studies were conducted to test this theory. Studies 1 (n = 134) and 2 (n = 47) used prospective designs and showed that undergraduates with high, but not low, levels of cognitive vulnerability were most likely to exhibit increases in depressive symptoms when sleeping well as operationalized by self-reported quality and objectively measured duration (via actigraphy). Study 3 (n = 40) used an experimental design and provides the first causal evidence that it may be possible to prevent future depressive symptoms in cognitively at-risk undergraduates by restricting their sleep during times of high perceived stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to clarify further the role of Beck's vulnerability-stress model in the early development of depression, this longitudinal study tested a threshold model of dysfunctional attitudes in children and adolescents. An initially asymptomatic sample of 889 youths aged 9-18 years completed measures of dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms. Twenty months later, participants reported stressful life events and current depressive symptoms. Results support a threshold view of cognitive vulnerability as only dysfunctional attitudes above a certain threshold significantly interacted with life events to predict depressive symptoms. Thus, findings suggest that dysfunctional attitudes must exceed a certain threshold to confer vulnerability to depressive symptomatology in youth. The term 'dysfunctional' might therefore only apply to higher levels of the 'dysfunctional attitudes' proposed by A. T. Beck. Results also indicate that studies using non-clinical samples may systematically underestimate the effect of dysfunctional attitudes when relying on conventional linear methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cognitive Style Questionnaire (CSQ), an expansion of the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), was created as an enhanced measure of cognitive vulnerability to depression using a hopelessness theory framework. However, the CSQ’s development emphasized facets of cognitive vulnerability consistent with a Eurocentric worldview. Consequently, the CSQ may inadvertently degrade rather than enhance assessment of cognitive vulnerability to depression for Black participants whose vulnerability may be shaped by a different sociopolitical context. Participants were 259 White and 180 Black college students. As predicted, cognitive vulnerability to depression assessed via the reformulated learned helplessness (ASQ) but not hopelessness theory (CSQ) was associated with increased symptoms of depression for Black participants. The opposite pattern of results was found for White participants for whom hopelessness (CSQ), but not helplessness (ASQ) was associated with higher levels of depression symptoms. The current findings support the need for more extensive examination of social context and race in assessing cognitive vulnerability to depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, 'basic' research has dominated the empirical literature on hopelessness theory. The next logical step in this area of research is to determine if the theory can be used to help people. We conducted three studies to determine if the cognitive vulnerability factor featured in hopelessness theory could be reliably measured in diverse samples in a treatment context and if it could predict depressive therapeutic outcomes. Study 1 used a sample of male juvenile detainees ( n = 296; 70% from underrepresented groups) and found that cognitive vulnerability moderated the effectiveness of a social problem solving training intervention. Study 2 used a clinical sample of U.S. Veterans ( n = 16; 56% from underrepresented groups) enrolled in a cognitive behavioral therapy group for depression and found that cognitive vulnerability predicted post-therapy depressive outcomes. In both Study 1 and Study 2, higher levels of cognitive vulnerability resulted in poorer treatment outcomes (i.e., greater post-treatment levels of depressive symptoms). Study 3 used a clinical sample of U.S. Veterans ( n = 76; 67% from underrepresented groups) enrolled in a behavior activation group and found no effect of cognitive vulnerability on post-therapy depressive outcomes. The results of the three studies indicate that hopelessness theory's cognitive vulnerability construct can be reliably measured in diverse samples in real world clinical contexts and that it has the potential to be a useful predictor of clinical outcomes in the context of cognitively focused treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cognitive factors might be the link between early attachment experiences and later depression. Similar cognitive vulnerability factors are discussed as relevant for both unipolar and bipolar disorders. The goals of the study were to test if there are any differences concerning attachment style and cognitive factors between remitted unipolar and bipolar patients compared to controls, and to test if the association between attachment style and depressive symptoms is mediated by cognitive factors.Methods: A path model was tested in 182 participants (61 with remitted unipolar and 61 with remitted bipolar disorder, and 60 healthy subjects) in which adult attachment insecurity was hypothesized to affect subsyndromal depressive symptoms through the partial mediation of dysfunctional attitudes and self-esteem.Results: No differences between patients with remitted unipolar and bipolar disorders concerning attachment style, dysfunctional attitudes, self-esteem, and subsyndromal depressive symptoms were found, but both groups reported a more dysfunctional pattern than healthy controls. The path models confirmed that the relationship between attachment style and depressive symptoms was mediated by the cognitive variables 'dysfunctional attitudes' and 'self-esteem'.Limitations: With the cross-sectional nature of the study, results cannot explain causal development over time.Conclusions: The results emphasize the relevance of a more elaborate understanding of cognitive and interpersonal factors in mood disorders. It is important to address cognitive biases and interpersonal experiences in treatment of mood disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Much research has examined negative cognitive schemas as mediators of the established relation between emotional maltreatment (EMT) in childhood and young adult depression, yet little research has investigated the possibility of a protective function of positive schemas in this regard. In the current study, 434 young adult men ( n = 112) and women ( n = 312), aged 17 to 25 years ( M = 18.59, SD = 1.21), completed measures of EMT, depressive symptoms, negative schemas, positive schema content, and interconnectivity. Both the content and interconnectivity of positive schemas were associated with lower depressive symptoms. Further, consistent with a protective function explanation, positive schemas significantly moderated the relation between EMT and depressive symptoms in young adulthood. Of all positive schema themes, optimism emerged as the most uniquely associated moderator of the EMT-to-depression relation. Results highlight a potential cognitive resilient process following EMT and underscore the importance of positive schemas in models of risk and resilience to young adult depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]