Reflective Rumination Research Articles

Suicidal ideation among racial/ethnic minorities: moderating effects of rumination and depressive symptoms.

Among emerging adults and college students, racial and ethnic minorities experience greater risk for suicidal ideation and behavior than their White counterparts. Research has identified numerous cognitive risk factors for suicidal ideation. However, they have not been well studied among racial and ethnic minorities. The present study examined the association between these factors (brooding rumination, reflective rumination, hopelessness, and depressive symptoms) and suicidal ideation among 690 Black, Latino, and biracial college students. Among all groups, hopelessness was positively associated with suicidal ideation. Brooding was negatively associated with suicidal ideation, after adjusting for reflection and hopelessness, although only at low levels of depressive symptoms. Black race/ethnicity and Latino race/ethnicity, compared with biracial race/ethnicity, each separately interacted with reflection to predict lower levels of suicidal ideation at moderate to high levels of reflection. Furthermore, Latino race/ethnicity, compared with biracial race/ethnicity, interacted with both reflection and depressive symptoms, such that reflection was negatively associated with suicidal ideation among Latino individuals reporting depressive symptoms above the 39th percentile. Biracial race/ethnicity, compared with monoracial race/ethnicity, also interacted with reflection and depressive symptoms, with reflection associated with greater amounts of suicidal ideation at depressive symptom levels above the 39th percentile. Our findings suggest reflective rumination differentially affects racial and ethnic groups and should be considered in conjunction with depressive symptoms among Latino and biracial individuals in suicide risk assessment and treatment.

The relationship between reflective rumination and musical ability.

The relationship between reflective rumination and musical ability.

Mediators of Posttraumatic Mental Health in Sexual Assault Survivors

The development of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and the relationship between PTG and distress outcomes in sexual assault is an important area of investigation. Recent research suggests that some forms of cognitive processing might be critical in the development, maintenance, and resolution of posttraumatic mental health among sexual assault survivors. The objective of this study was to examine factors associated with posttraumatic mental health among sexual assault survivors. Seventy-three participants who experienced sexual assault completed measures of trauma symptoms, PTG, changes in outlook, cognitive processing, and support and coping. Results revealed that significant levels of posttraumatic symptomatology and low levels of PTG were reported 3 years following sexual assault. A weak relationship was found between symptoms of distress and growth. Contrary to predictions, only ratings of hope and brooding rumination were mediators of the relationship between posttraumatic symptoms and PTG. Reflective rumination was not related to the development of PTG.

How is Anxiety Involved in the Longitudinal Relationship between Brooding Rumination and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents?

A growing body of research supports the application of Response Styles Theory to adolescent populations. Although the essential dynamic, namely that rumination increases the incidence of depressive symptoms, has been demonstrated among adolescents, a number of important empirical questions remain, such as: what are the gender differences and developmental trends for brooding and reflective rumination?; does a reciprocal relationship exist between brooding or reflective rumination, on the one hand, and depressive symptoms and anxiety, on the other hand, over time? and how do additional variables (i.e., anxiety) impact upon the rumination-depressive symptoms relationship? In this study, self-reported levels of rumination (both brooding and reflective), and anxious and depressive symptoms were measured longitudinally across 4 months in a sample of 976 community adolescents (46% females), aged 11-16 years old. Mean group differences showed that female adolescents reported engaging in more brooding rumination than male adolescents beginning at 13 years of age. A reciprocal brooding rumination to depressive symptoms relationship and a reciprocal brooding rumination to anxiety relationship were found over time, and they did not differ for boys and girls. We tested the possibility that anxious symptoms would function as a third variable, but the obtained model showed that brooding rumination and anxiety both contributed unique variance in predicting changes in depressive symptoms over time.

Default-Mode and Task-Positive Network Activity in Major Depressive Disorder: Implications for Adaptive and Maladaptive Rumination

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated reliably with ruminative responding; this kind of responding is composed of both maladaptive and adaptive components. Levels of activity in the default-mode network (DMN) relative to the task-positive network (TPN), as well as activity in structures that influence DMN and TPN functioning, may represent important neural substrates of maladaptive and adaptive rumination in MDD. We used a unique metric to estimate DMN dominance over TPN from blood oxygenation level-dependent data collected during eyes-closed rest in 17 currently depressed and 17 never-disordered adults. We calculated correlations between this metric of DMN dominance over TPN and the depressive, brooding, and reflective subscales of the Ruminative Responses Scale, correcting for associations between these measures both with one another and with severity of depression. Finally, we estimated and compared across groups right fronto-insular cortex (RFIC) response during initiations of ascent in DMN and in TPN activity. In the MDD participants, increasing levels of DMN dominance were associated with higher levels of maladaptive, depressive rumination and lower levels of adaptive, reflective rumination. Moreover, our RFIC state-change analysis showed increased RFIC activation in the MDD participants at the onset of increases in TPN activity; conversely, healthy control participants exhibited increased RFIC response at the onset of increases in DMN activity. These findings support a formulation in which the DMN undergirds representation of negative, self-referential information in depression, and the RFIC, when prompted by increased levels of DMN activity, initiates an adaptive engagement of the TPN.

Practice at the Crossroads: When practice meets theory, a rumination

Consumer practices, work practices, not to mention management, design and research practices. The notion of “practice” remains core to much of what ethnographers in industry examine, expose and aim to inform. This paper questions: while we study practice(s), while we may frame our research and analysis with sensitivity towards rendering visible the richness or particularity of peoples' practice, what have we really learned about practice? In part aimed at considering whether and how the work performed by ethnographers in industry advances or critiques theories of practice as explored by Bourdieu and others, the paper aims to reconcile the fact that we are “there” at the behest of our business counterparts to have an impact and affect change. So the question shifts from not only how we use and understand concepts of practice to how it frames the expectations of our business partners and stakeholders. What I have found is that there is both productive overlap and significant slippage between our (theoretically buttressed and anthropologically‐resonant) notions of practice and the (action‐oriented, practical ones) of our business counterparts. This piece is intended as a reflective rumination on the notion of “practice” at the cusp of theory and business to appraise its value, present and future, to both theoretical and business interests.

Take Some Time to Think This Over: The Relation Between Rumination, Indecision, and Creativity

Because rumination may allow an idea to stay in one's conscious longer and indecision may result in more time on a given task, it was expected that these two cognitive processes may predict creativity. Self-report measures of rumination, indecision, and creativity were electronically distributed to 85 adults (28 men, 57 women; M age = 32.96 years old). Reflective rumination significantly predicted creativity, moderated by high levels of indecision. This study may resolve previous conflicts between findings on rumination and creativity and introduces indecision as beneficial in the creative process. This study also provided important clinical implications in distinguishing between adaptive and maladaptive rumination suggesting a new cognitive link between creativity and depression.

Rumination and Lifetime History of Suicide Attempts.

The primary goal of the current study was to examine the link between rumination (brooding and reflective rumination) and histories suicide attempts in adult psychiatric inpatients. As predicted, psychiatric inpatients reporting histories of suicide attempts exhibited higher current levels of brooding, but not reflective, rumination than did those with no prior suicide attempts. These results were maintained even after statistically controlling for patients' current depressive symptom levels. These results support the hypothesis that rumination, particularly brooding rumination, may be a risk factor for suicide attempts.

Brooding and reflective rumination among suicide attempters: Cognitive vulnerability to suicidal ideation

Previous research suggests that the brooding subtype of rumination is associated with increased suicidal ideation, but findings are inconsistent with respect to reflection, considered to be the more adaptive form of rumination. This study investigated the circumstances under which reflective rumination might be associated with increased suicidal ideation by examining whether a suicide attempt history moderated the relationship between the ruminative subtypes and current suicidal ideation. Thirty-seven young adults who reported a past suicide attempt and fifty-nine young adults without a suicide attempt history completed measures of rumination and depression symptoms in an initial study session. They then completed a measure of suicidal ideation and hopelessness during a second study session. Overall, brooding was associated with higher self-reported suicidal ideation, whereas reflection was not significantly associated with ideation. However, reflection – but not brooding – interacted with suicide attempt history to statistically predict suicidal ideation, even after adjusting for symptoms of depression and hopelessness, whereas brooding no longer predicted ideation after adjusting for these symptoms. These findings qualify earlier suggestions that reflection is a more adaptive form of rumination by indicating that among vulnerable individuals – in particular those with a history of a suicide attempt – a higher degree of reflective rumination is associated with increased suicidal ideation.

Rumination and Prospective Changes in Depressive Symptoms

According to the response styles theory (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), rumination contributes to both the development and maintenance of depressive symptoms. In this study, we examined the vulnerability and maintenance hypotheses in a multi-wave prospective study of young adults with levels of negative events and depressive symptoms assessed every week for 7 weeks. We found no support for the vulnerability hypothesis. Specifically, levels of rumination (brooding or reflective rumination) did not moderate the link between weekly negative events and weekly changes in depressive symptoms. In contrast, we did find support for the maintenance hypothesis. Specifically, levels of brooding and reflective rumination were related to elevated depressive symptom levels across the follow-up. Consistent with previous research, the magnitude of the effect for brooding was stronger than that for reflective rumination.