Depressogenic Cognitive Styles Research Articles

A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis of 30 years of stress generation research: Clinical, psychological, and sociodemographic risk and protective factors for prospective negative life events.

Stress generation posits that (a) individuals at-risk for psychopathology may inadvertently experience higher rates of prospective dependent stress (i.e., stressors that are in part influenced by their thoughts and behaviors) but not independent stress (i.e., stressors occurring outside their influence), and (b) this elevated dependent stress, in some measure, is what places these individuals at-risk for future psychopathology. In recognition of 30 years of stress generation research, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis using frequentist and Bayesian approaches (102 articles with 104 eligible studies, N = 31,541). Generally strong support was found for psychopathology predicting dependent stress (e.g., dsOverall psychopathology = 0.36-0.52, BF₁₀ = 946.00 to 4.65 × 10¹⁸). Moderator analyses for dependent stress revealed larger effects for briefer assessments periods, shorter follow-ups, and self-report measures than for interviews. Among risk factors, depressogenic cognitive styles (ds = .26-.50, BF₁₀ = 47.50 to 1.00 × 10⁵) and general interpersonal vulnerability (ds = .26-.44, BF₁₀ = 2.72 to 2708.00) received the strongest support as stress generation mechanisms, and current evidence is modest for protective factors predicting dependent stress. Overall, larger effects were generally found for prospective prediction of dependent stress than independent stress. Evaluations of mediation in the research literature were relatively few, limiting the current review to qualitative analysis of the mediation component of stress generation. General support was found, however, for dependent stress as a mediator for psychopathology and associated risk factors in relation to subsequent psychopathology. The current review ends with recommendations for future research and integration of stress generation within minority stress frameworks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Effectiveness of Providing Cognitive-behavioral Group Therapy for Both Children and their Parents Separately in the Treatment of Childhood Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot Study

Background: Three social learning mechanisms were hypothesized to influence the development of depressogenic cognitive styles: modeling of parents’ negative cognitive styles; direct learning from negative parental inferential feedback regarding the stressful events in the child’s life; and indirect learning from negative parenting practices. In this study, I proposed an approach addressing psychopathology in parents as well as their children through providing cognitive behavioral therapy for both, separately, in treatment of childhood Major depressive disorder. This study’s objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach. Method: Cognitive behavioral group therapy was provided separately to seven children diagnosed with Major depressive disorder, and their parents in 12 weekly 1-hour sessions. Parents’ sessions were parallel to children sessions, focused on learning the same skills and techniques taught in the children’s groups, targeting modifying negative cognitive styles of parents as well as children. Psychiatric clinical interview by specialized child psychiatrists and Parent-rated Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (PMFQ) were used pre- and post-treatment to evaluate depressive symptoms. Results: At the end of the treatment, all children no longer met criteria for major depressive disorder. There were statistically significant reductions in scores of parent-rated Mood and Feelings Questionnaire, which also demonstrated that none of the children no longer had a score indicative of depressive disorder. Conclusion: This study suggested that providing cognitive behavioral group therapy for both children and their parents, separately, is an effective approach for childhood major depressive disorder treatment.

The association between paternal depressogenic cognitive styles during pregnancy and offspring depressogenic cognitive styles: an 18-year prospective cohort study.

BackgroundPreventing the development of depressogenic or negative cognitive styles could also prevent the development of depression, a leading public health problem worldwide. Maternal negative cognitive styles are a modifiable risk factor for the development of negative cognitive styles in offspring. However, evidence on the role of paternal negative cognitive styles is inconclusive and there have only been a few small studies, which may also have lacked statistical power.MethodsWe used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to investigate the association between paternal negative cognitive styles, measured when mothers were 18 weeks pregnant, and offspring negative cognitive styles 18 years later (N = 6,123). Associations were calculated using linear regression models, before and after adjustment for confounders including maternal negative cognitive styles. We compared associations before and after controlling for depression in parents and offspring, and used multiple imputation to reduce biases that may have arisen due to missing data.ResultsA two‐standard deviation increase in paternal negative cognitive style was associated with a 3‐point increase in offspring negative cognitive style (95% CI 1.36–4.37). This association remained after adjustment for confounders and was independent of depression in both parents and offspring. The effect size was equivalent to that of maternal negative cognitive style, and was also independent of maternal negative cognitive style.ConclusionsOur results suggest that fathers should be included in individual‐ and family‐based interventions designed to prevent the development of depressogenic cognitive styles in adolescent offspring. This could possibly also prevent the development of depression.

Association Between Maternal Depressogenic Cognitive Style During Pregnancy and Offspring Cognitive Style 18 Years Later

ObjectiveUnderstanding the origins of negative cognitive style could provide a means to prevent adult depression. Cognitive style is an important target for intervention because although it is not possible to remove the stress and adversities in people’s lives, it may be possible to modify interpretation of such adversities through cognitive style. Children may develop a negative cognitive style through modeling the style of their mothers. However, findings have been inconsistent on the association. The authors tested the hypothesis that there is an independent association between maternal and offspring depressogenic cognitive style.MethodData from over 4,000 mothers and children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort study in the United Kingdom were used to investigate the association between maternal depressogenic cognitive style before the offspring’s birth and the offspring’s depressogenic cognitive style at age 18.ResultsA positive association was observed between maternal and offspring cognitive styles: a one-standard-deviation increase in maternal depressogenic cognitive style score during pregnancy was significantly associated with a mean increase of 0.1 standard deviations in offspring depressogenic cognitive style score at age 18. This effect remained after adjusting for maternal and offspring depression and explained 21% of the association between maternal and offspring depression.ConclusionsAlthough the mechanisms remain to be elucidated, the findings are consistent with the idea that a mother’s cognitive style (irrespective of her depression status) influences that of her child. This suggests that interventions to improve a mother’s cognitive style could help prevent her offspring from developing depression during adulthood.

Childhood abuse and stress generation: The mediational effect of depressogenic cognitive styles

According to the stress generation hypothesis (Hammen, 1991), depressed and depression-prone individuals experience higher rates of negative life events influenced by their own behaviors and characteristics (i.e., dependent events), which in part may account for the often recurrent nature of depression. Relatively little is known about the interrelation between stress generation predictors, and distal risk factors for this phenomenon. This study examined whether childhood emotional, sexual, and physical abuse, each uniquely predicted negative dependent events in individuals with a history of depression. The role of negative inferential styles as a potential mediator was also assessed. A sample of 66 adults with a history of depression completed self-report measures of childhood abuse history and negative inferential styles at baseline. The “contextual threat” method was used to assess the occurrence of negative life events over a 4-month prospective follow-up period. Childhood emotional abuse, but not sexual or physical abuse, prospectively predicted greater stress generation. Negative inferential styles mediated this relation. These findings suggest that targeting negative cognitive styles in clinical settings, especially in patients with a history of childhood emotional abuse, may be important for reducing the occurrence of negative life events, thereby possibly decreasing risk for depression recurrence.

A Cognitive-Interpersonal Model of Adolescent Depression: The Impact of Family Conflict and Depressogenic Cognitive Styles

The goal of the study is to examine whether family conflict generates peer-related stress and subsequent depressive symptoms among adolescents. In addition, in the context of the proposed mediation model, we examine whether negative cognitive styles about the self, cause, and consequences moderate the mediational pathway between peer stress and depressive symptoms. The study includes 179 adolescents (71 boys, 108 girls) ages 12 to 18, and the majority of the participants are Caucasian (79.5%). At the initial assessment, participants completed self-report measures regarding family conflict, negative cognitive style, stress, and depressive symptoms. Participants also completed 3 subsequent self-report assessments every 6 weeks in which information regarding stress and depressive symptoms were collected. Both within- and between-subject analyses indicate that dependent interpersonal peer stress partially mediates the relationship between greater family conflict and higher levels of depressive symptoms. Moreover, results of our moderated-mediation model indicate that negative cognitive styles regarding the self and cause, but not consequences, moderate the mediational pathway between peer stress and depressive symptoms. These findings underscore the importance of examining more comprehensive models that incorporate both cognitive and interpersonal vulnerability.

Cognitive vulnerability and frontal brain asymmetry: Common predictors of first prospective depressive episode.

The hopelessness theory of depression proposes that individuals with a depressogenic cognitive style are more likely to become hopeless and experience depression following negative life events. Although the neurophysiological underpinnings of cognitive style remain speculative, research indicates that decreased relative left frontal brain electrical activity holds promise as a traitlike marker of depression. This begs the question: Do measures of depressogenic cognitive style and resting frontal brain asymmetry index a common vulnerability? The present study provides preliminary support for this hypothesis. At baseline assessment, increased cognitive vulnerability to depression was associated with decreased relative left frontal brain activity at rest in individuals with no prior history of, or current, depression. Following baseline assessment, participants were followed prospectively an average of 3 years with structured diagnostic interviews at 4-month intervals. Both cognitive vulnerability and asymmetric frontal cortical activity prospectively predicted onset of first depressive episode in separate univariate analyses. Furthermore, multivariate analyses indicated that cognitive vulnerability and frontal asymmetry represented shared, rather than independent, predictors of first depression onset.

Prospective Study on Suicidal Ideation Among Japanese Undergraduate Students: Correlation with Stressful Life Events, Depression, and Depressogenic Cognitive Patterns

The present study examines the effects of stressful life events, depression, and depressogenic cognitive patterns on suicidal ideation in 500 Japanese undergraduate students. The above factors were assessed at baseline (T1) and two weeks later (T3). At T1, structural equation modeling confirmed that (1) cognitive patterns and depression, but not stressful life events, influence suicidal ideation, and (2) cognitive patterns also influence suicidal ideation through depression. These findings were confirmed in a longitudinal analysis. The results suggest that the effects of stressful life events on suicidal ideation are indirect and are mediated by depressogenic cognitive styles and depressed mood.

Attributional style and depressive symptoms in adolescents: An examination of the role of various indicators of cognitive vulnerability

This study focuses on the hopelessness theory to explain depressive symptoms in adolescents. The aim is to assess which dimensions of the attributional style (causal attribution, attribution of consequences, implications for the self, total score, and weakest link score) better moderate the impact of negative events on the increase of depressive symptoms. For this purpose, 856 Spanish adolescents (449 girls and 407 boys, ages between 14 and 17 years) were assessed at the beginning of the school year and at follow-up 6 months later. They completed measures of depressogenic cognitive style [Hankin, B. L., & Abramson, L. Y. (2002). Measuring cognitive vulnerability to depression in adolescents: Reliability, validity, and gender differences. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 491–504], negative life events, and depressive symptoms. The results show that only the dimension of attribution of stable and global causes moderated the impact of the negative events on the increase of depression at follow-up. The results are discussed in terms of the meaning of the weakest link score and the construct of attributional style from a developmental perspective.

Predictors of Depressive Relapse During a Two Year Prospective Follow-up after Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies

Patient characteristics may partly explain individual differences in long-term maintenance of treatment gains in response to cognitive and behavioral therapies (CBT). This study evaluated the relative contribution of negative cognitive style, behavioral activation, and personality patterns, measured at the end of treatment among treatment responders, towards the risk of relapse of major depressive disorder over a 2-year prospective follow-up. The sample included depressed adults who were randomized and received an adequate dose of one of three forms of CBT, who then fully responded and completed a 2-year prospective follow-up (N = 93) (Jacobson et al., 1996; Gortner, Gollan, Dobson and Jacobson, 1998). Cox regression analyses revealed that for treatment responders, self-devaluative depressogenic cognitive style did not predict relapse during the 2-year follow-up. Separate cox regression analyses indicated that without considering the contribution of personality patterns, it was important to distinguish the level of behavioral activation (e.g. frequency of pleasant events) from its associated pleasure in predicting relapse. With the introduction of personality patterns; however, an integrated model revealed that only dependent personality pattern was associated with hazard of relapse during the 2-year prospective follow-up. Dependent personality pattern may increase relapse through behavioral passivity.

The developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression: Temperament, parenting, and negative life events in childhood as contributors to negative cognitive style.

Cognitive models of depression have been well supported with adults, but the developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability are not well understood. The authors hypothesized that temperament, parenting, and negative life events in childhood would contribute to the development of cognitive style, with withdrawal negativity and negative parental feedback moderating the effects of negative life events to predict more depressogenic cognitive styles. These constructs were assessed in 289 children and their parents followed longitudinally from infancy to 5th grade; a subsample (n = 120) also participated in a behavioral task in which maternal feedback to child failure was observed. Results indicated that greater withdrawal negativity in interaction with negative life events was associated with more negative cognitive styles. Self-reported maternal anger expression and observed negative maternal feedback to child's failure significantly interacted with child's negative events to predict greater cognitive vulnerability. There was little evidence of paternal parenting predicting child negative cognitive style.

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

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

An exploration of comorbid depression among female victims of intimate partner violence with posttraumatic stress disorder

Background and methods: Factors contributing to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and comorbid major depression (MDD) were investigated among female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). Results: High levels of PTSD (75% of the sample) and MDD (54% of the sample) were observed. Individuals with both PTSD and MDD reported significantly greater levels of PTSD and depression symptoms than individuals with either PTSD alone or without major psychopathology. Individuals with comorbid PTSD and MDD had more maladaptive depressogenic cognitive styles than individuals without PTSD. The three groups were comparable in terms of pre-abuse mental health, childhood trauma history, and relationship violence variables and injuries. Maladaptive schemas did not contribute to the identification of comorbidity caseness, whereas PTSD severity and prior trauma did. Psychological aggression by an abuser and PTSD severity accounted for 52% of the variance in depressive symptoms. Limitations: Cross-sectional design and lack of trauma-specific cognitive measures. Conclusions: The findings confirm that comorbid PTSD and MDD is common among IPV victims. The mechanisms that contribute to comorbid depression, however, are unclear, and prospective studies are necessary to delineate the roles that psychological abuse, PTSD severity and prior trauma experiences may have in the development of depression following IPV.

The Development of Depressogenic Cognitive Styles: The Role of Negative Childhood Life Events and Parental Inferential Feedback

This study examined the role of childhood negative life events and parental inferential feedback in the development of cognitive vulnerability to depression. Students with negative cognitive styles, previously shown to be at high cognitive risk for depression, were predicted to have a greater history of negative childhood life events and negative parental inferential feedback than were students at low cognitive risk for depression. It was further predicted that parental inferential feedback would moderate the relationship between negative childhood life events and cognitive risk for depression. Finally, the associations between subsets of childhood negative life events and cognitive risk for depression were examined. No significant main effects were found for childhood negative life events or parental inferential feedback. The interaction of these 2 variables was significantly associated with cognitive risk status. Specifically, high levels of negative childhood life events in combination with negative maternal inferential feedback were associated with students’ cognitive risk for depression. When the negative childhood life events were divided into subsets, no main effects or interactions were found.

The Development of Depressogenic Cognitive Styles: The Role of Negative Childhood Life Events and Parental Inferential Feedback

The Development of Depressogenic Cognitive Styles: The Role of Negative Childhood Life Events and Parental Inferential Feedback

Developmental Origins of Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression: Parenting, Cognitive, and Inferential Feedback Styles of the Parents of Individuals at High and Low Cognitive Risk for Depression

In this study, we examined the role of three social learning mechanisms in the development of undergraduates' depressogenic cognitive styles: modeling of parents' negative cognitive styles; negative inferential feedback from parents regarding the causes and consequences of stressful events in the child's life; and negative parenting practices. We obtained partial support for each of the three hypotheses. Compared to the parents of cognitively low-risk students, cognitively high-risk students' mothers exhibited more negative dysfunctional attitudes and inferential styles themselves; high-risk students' fathers showed less emotional acceptance and warmth; and high-risk students' mothers and fathers both communicated more stable, global attributional feedback and negative consequence feedback for stressful events in their children's lives. In addition, both parents' inferential feedback and fathers' emotional acceptance predicted their undergraduate children's likelihood of developing an episode of major or minor depression or the subtype of hopelessness depression during a 2.5-year prospective follow-up period, with some of these predictive associations mediated totally or in part by the students' cognitive vulnerability status.

Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression: Theory and Evidence

According to the cognitive vulnerability hypothesis of two major cognitive theories of depression, Beck’s (1967; 1987) theory and the hopelessness theory (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989), negative cognitive styles provide vulnerability to depression, particularly hopelessness depression (HD), when people encounter negative life events. The Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) Project is a two-site, prospective longitudinal study designed to test this hypothesis as well as the other etiological hypotheses of Beck’s and the hopelessness theories of depression. We present findings from the CVD Project suggesting that the hypothesized depressogenic cognitive styles do indeed confer vulnerability for clinically significant depressive disorders and suicidality. In addition, we present evidence about the information processing and personality correlates of these styles. Finally, we discuss preliminary findings about the developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression.

Psychological effects of weight cycling in obese persons: a review and research agenda.

This review summarizes studies on the psychological effects of weight cycling (i.e., weight loss and regain) in obese persons and proposes an agenda for future research on this topic. Among general psychological constructs, the current literature suggests that weight cycling is not associated with depression, other psychopathology, or depressogenic cognitive styles. Weight cycling is associated with decreased perceptions of health and well-being, although the clinical significance of this relationship is uncertain. Among weight- and eating-related constructs, weight cycling does not appear to be related to restraint, hunger, or personality traits associated with eating disorders. Weight cycling, however, does appear to be associated with clinically significant reductions in eating self-efficacy and weak but consistent increases in binge eating severity. Definitive conclusions about the presence or absence of the psychological consequences of weight cycling are premature, given the small number of studies, as well as a variety of methodological and interpretive concerns. A new generation of research is necessary to determine the extent and nature of the psychological sequelae of weight cycling.