Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-frp75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T03:31:55.081Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Simultaneously examining negative appraisals, emotion reactivity, and cognitive reactivity in relation to depressive symptoms in children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

David A. Cole ,
Rachel L. Zelkowitz ,
Elizabeth A. Nick ,
Sophia R. Lubarsky  and
Jason D. Rights
David A. Cole*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Rachel L. Zelkowitz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Elizabeth A. Nick
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Sophia R. Lubarsky
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Jason D. Rights
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
*
Author for correspondence: David A. Cole, Department of Psychology and Human Development Peabody College, Box 512, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203; E-mail: david.cole@vanderbilt.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prior theory and research have linked negative appraisals (NA), emotion reactivity (ER), and cognitive reactivity (CR) to depression; however, few studies have examined whether even two of these constructs simultaneously, but none have done so in child or adolescent populations. A total of 571 youths (ages 9–13) completed a novel procedure in which all three constructs were assessed in response to the same personally relevant, hypothetical, peer victimization events. Multilevel modeling enabled the extraction of dynamic, within-person, latent-variable measures of NA, ER, and CR. All three constructs were related to children's depressive symptoms in ways that were commensurate with most (but not all) theoretical frameworks. Gender and age differences also emerged. Support for an NA-predicts-ER-predicts-CR model suggests ways that these constructs can be integrated into a more complete, transtheoretical understanding of the cognitive-emotional substrate of depression in children.

Keywords

cognitive reactivitydepressionemotion reactivitynegative appraisalspeer victimization

Information

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 1527 - 1540
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ackermann, R., & DeRubeis, R. J. (1991). Is depressive realism real? Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 565–584. doi:10.1016/0272-7358(91)90004-EGoogle Scholar
Arnold, M. B. (1960). Emotion and personality. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 324–333.10.1001/archpsyc.1963.01720160014002Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Hoeber.Google Scholar
Billings, A. G., & Moos, R. H. (1982). Psychosocial theory and research on depression: An integrative framework and review. Clinical Psychology Review, 2, 213–237.10.1016/0272-7358(82)90013-7Google Scholar
Bistricky, S. L., Ingram, R. E., Siegle, G. J., & Short, M. (2015). Parental depression risk and reduced physiological responses during a valence identification task. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 39, 318–331. doi:10.1007/s10608-014-9660-6Google Scholar
Booij, L., & Van der Does, A. J. W. (2007). Cognitive and serotonergic vulnerability to depression: Convergent findings. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 86–94. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.116.1.86Google Scholar
Bylsma, L. M., Morris, B. H., & Rottenberg, J. (2008). A meta-analysis of emotional reactivity in major depressive disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 676–691. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2007.10.001Google Scholar
Bylsma, L. M., Taylor-Clift, A., & Rottenberg, J. (2011). Emotional reactivity to daily events in major and minor depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 155–167. doi:10.1037/a0021662Google Scholar
Charbonneau, A. M., Mezulis, A. H., & Hyde, J. S. (2009). Stress and emotional reactivity as explanations for gender differences in adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38, 1050–1058. doi:10.1007/s10964-009-9398-8Google Scholar
Clark, D. A., Beck, A. T., & Alford, B. A. (1999). Scientific foundations of cognitive theory and therapy of depression. New York: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
Cole, D. A., Martin, J. M., Peeke, L. A., Seroczynski, A. D., & Fier, J. (1999). Children's over- and underestimation of academic competence: A longitudinal study of gender differences, depression, and anxiety. Child Development, 70, 459–473. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00033Google Scholar
Cole, D. A., Martin, J. M., Peeke, L. G., Seroczynski, A. D., & Hoffman, K. (1998). Are cognitive errors of underestimation predictive or reflective of depressive symptoms in children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 481–496. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.107.3.481Google Scholar
Cole, D. A., Dukewich, T. L., Roeder, K., Sinclair, K. R., McMillan, J., Will, E., Bilsky, S., Martin, N., & Felton, J. W. (2014). Linking peer victimization to the development of depressive self-schemas in children and adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 42, 149–160. doi:10.1007/s10802-013-9769-1Google Scholar
Cole, D. A., Martin, N. C., Sterba, S. K., Sinclair-McBride, K., Roeder, K. M., Zelkowitz, R., & Bilsky, S. A. (2014). Peer victimization (and harsh parenting) as developmental correlates of cognitive reactivity, a diathesis for depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 336–349. doi:10.1037/a0036489Google Scholar
Cole, D. A., Maxwell, M. A., Dukewich, T. L., & Yosick, R. (2010). Targeted peer victimization and the construction of positive and negative self-cognitions: Connections to depressive symptoms in children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 39, 421–435. doi:10.1080/15374411003691776Google Scholar
Cole, D. A., Sinclair-McBride, K., Zelkowitz, R., Bilsk, S. A., Roeder, K., & Spinelli, T. (2016). Peer victimization and harsh parenting predict cognitive diatheses for depression in children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 45, 668–680. doi:10.1080/15374416.2015.1004679Google Scholar
Dalgleish, T., Taghavi, R., Neshat-Doost, H., Moradi, A., Canterbury, R., & Yule, W. (2003). Patterns of processing bias for emotional information across clinical disorders: A comparison of attention, memory, and prospective cognition in children and adolescents with depression, generalized anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 10–21. doi:10.1207/15374420360533022.Google Scholar
Davidson, R. J. (1998). Affective style and affective disorders: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Cognition and Emotion, 12(3), 307–330. doi:10.1080/026999398379628Google Scholar
Davidson, R. J., Lewis, D. A., Alloy, L. B., Amaral, D. G., Bush, G., Cohen, J. D., et al. (2002). Neural and behavioral substrates of mood and mood regulation. Biological Psychiatry, 52, 478–502, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3223(02)01458-0 .Google Scholar
Dobson, K., & Franche, R. (1989). A conceptual and empirical review of the depressive realism hypothesis. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue Canadienne Des Sciences Du Comportement, 21, 41–433. doi:10.1037/h0079839Google Scholar
Everaert, J., Koster, E. H. W., & Derakshan, N. (2012). The combined cognitive bias hypothesis in depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 32, 413–424. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2012.04.003Google Scholar
Gotlib, I. H., Kasch, K. L., Traill, S., Joormann, J., Arnow, B. A., & Johnson, S. L. (2004). Coherence and specificity of information-processing biases in depression and social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 386–398, doi:10.1037/0021-843x.113.3.386.Google Scholar
Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271–299. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271Google Scholar
Gross, J.J., & Feldman Barrett, L. (2011). Emotion generation and emotion regulation: One or two depends on your point of view. Emotion Review, 3, 8–16. doi:10.1177/1754073910380974Google Scholar
Hankin, B. L., & Abramson, L. Y. (2002). Measuring cognitive vulnerability to depression in adolescence: Reliability, validity and gender differences. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 491–504. doi:10.1207/153744202320802160Google Scholar
Hankin, B. L., Mermelstein, R., & Roesch, L. (2007). Sex differences in adolescent depression: Stress exposure and reactivity models. Child Development, 78, 279–295. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00997.xGoogle Scholar
Hyde, J. S., Mezulis, A. H., & Abramson, L. Y. (2008). The ABCs of depression: Integrating affective, biological, and cognitive models to explain the emergence of the gender difference in depression. Psychological Review, 115, 291–313. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.115.2.291Google Scholar
Ingram, R. E. (1984). Toward an information-processing analysis of depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 8, 443–477, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01173284Google Scholar
Ingram, R. E. (1990). Self-focused attention in clinical disorders: Review and a conceptual model. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 156–176. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.156Google Scholar
Ingram, R. E., & Smith, T. W. (1984). Depression and internal versus external focus of attention. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 8, 139–151. doi: 10.1007/BF01173040Google Scholar
Ingram, R. E., Cruet, D., Johnson, B. R., & Wisnicki, K. S. (1988). Self-focused attention, gender, gender role, and vulnerability to negative affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 967–978. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.55.6.967Google Scholar
Kessler, R. C., McGonagle, K., Swartz, M., Blazer, D., & Nelson, C. (1993). Sex and depression in the National Comorbidity Survey: I. Lifetime prevalence, chronicity and recurrence. Journal of Affective Disorders, 29, 85–96.10.1016/0165-0327(93)90026-GGoogle Scholar
Kovacs, M., & Beck, A. T. (1978). Maladaptive cognitive structures in depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 525–533. doi:10.1176/ajp.135.5.525Google Scholar
Kucharska, J. (2017). Sex differences in the appraisal of traumatic events and psychopathology. Psychological Trauma: Research, Practice, and Policy, 9, 575–582.10.1037/tra0000244Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Luby, J. L., & Belden, A. C. (2006). Mood disorders: Phenomenology and a developmental emotion reactivity model. In Luby, J. L. (Ed.), Handbook of preschool mental health: Development, disorders, and treatment; handbook of preschool mental health: Development, disorders, and treatment (pp. 209–230). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Luby, J., Belden, A., Sullivan, J., Hayen, R., McCadney, A., & Spitznagel, E. (2009). Shame and guilt in preschool depression: Evidence for elevations in self-conscious emotions in depression as early as age 3. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 50, 1156–1166. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02077.xGoogle Scholar
Malcarne, V. L., Hamilton, N. A., Ingram, R. E., & Taylor, L. (2000). Correlates of distress in children at risk for affective disorder: Exploring predictors in the offspring of depressed and nondepressed mothers. Journal of Affective Disorders, 59, 243–251. doi:10.1016/S0165-0327(99)00155-XGoogle Scholar
Martin, J. M., & Cole, D. A. (2000). Using the personal stroop to detect children's awareness of social rejection by peers. Cognition and Emotion, 14, 241–260. doi:10.1080/026999300378950Google Scholar
Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., Dixon, C., Fisher, S., Twelftree, H., & McWilliams, A. (2000). Trait anxiety, defensiveness and selective processing of threat: An investigation using two measures of attentional bias. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 1063–1077. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00157-9.Google Scholar
Nock, M. K., Wedig, M. M., Holmberg, E. B., & Hooley, J. M. (2008). The emotion reactivity scale: Development, evaluation, and relation to self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Behavior Therapy, 39, 107–116. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2007.05.005Google Scholar
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2012). Emotion regulation and psychopathology: The role of gender. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 61–87. doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-143109Google Scholar
Painter, K. (2012). Outcomes for youth with severe emotional disturbance: A repeated measures longitudinal study of a wraparound approach of service delivery in systems of care. Child & Youth Care Forum, 41, 407–425. doi:10.1007/s10566-011-9167-1Google Scholar
Platt, B., Waters, A. M., Schulte-Koerne, G., Engelmann, L., & Salemink, E. (2017). A review of cognitive biases in youth depression: Attention, interpretation and memory. Cognition and Emotion, 31, 462–483. doi:10.1080/02699931.2015.1127215Google Scholar
Prinstein, M. J., Cheah, C. S. L., & Guyer, A. E. (2005). Peer victimization, cue interpretation, and internalizing symptoms: Preliminary concurrent and longitudinal findings for children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34, 11–24. doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp3401_2Google Scholar
Rasa, O. A., & Hopp, M. (1989). Age and sex-related differences in threat perception in a modern urban society. Aggressive Behavior, 15, 389–398.10.1002/1098-2337(1989)15:5<389::AID-AB2480150507>3.0.CO;2-B3.0.CO;2-B>Google Scholar
Reynolds, C. R. (2002). Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale—Second edition (RADS-2) professional manual. Los Angeles, CA: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Reynolds, C. R., & Mazza, J. J. (1998). Reliability and validity of the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale with young adolescents. Journal of School Psychology, 36, 295–312. doi:10.1016/S0022-4405(98)00010–7Google Scholar
Rights, J. D., & Sterba, S. K. (2018). Quantifying explained variance in multilevel models: An integrative framework for defining R-squared measures. Psychological Methods [Epub ahead of print July 18, 2018].10.1037/met0000139Google Scholar
Rosenberg, E. L. (1998). Levels of analysis and the organization of affect. Review of General Psychology, 2, 247–270.Google Scholar
Rottenberg, J. (2017). Emotions in depression: What do we really know? Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 13, 241–263. doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816-045252Google Scholar
Rottenberg, J., Gross, J. J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2005). Emotion context insensitivity in major depressive disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 627–639. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.114.4.627Google Scholar
Rudolph, K. D. (2002). Gender differences in emotional responses to interpersonal stress during adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Health, 30(4, Suppl), 3–13.10.1016/S1054-139X(01)00383-4Google Scholar
Salk, R. H., Hyde, J. S., & Abramson, L. Y. (2017). Gender differences in representative national samples: Meta-analysis of diagnoses and symptoms. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 783–822.10.1037/bul0000102Google Scholar
Sass, S. M., Heller, W., Stewart, J. L., Silton, R. L., Edgar, J. C., Fisher, J. E., & Miller, G. A. (2010). Time course of attentional bias in anxiety: Emotion and gender specificity. Psychophysiology, 47, 247–259. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00926.xGoogle Scholar
Scher, C. D., Ingram, R. E., & Segal, Z. V. (2005). Cognitive reactivity and vulnerability: Empirical evaluation of construct activation and cognitive diatheses in unipolar depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 25, 487–510. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2005.01.005Google Scholar
Segal, Z. V. (1988). Appraisal of the self-schema construct in cognitive models of depression. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 147–162.10.1037/0033-2909.103.2.147Google Scholar
Selig, J. P., & Preacher, K. J. (2008, June). Monte Carlo method for assessing mediation: An interactive tool for creating confidence intervals for indirect effects [computer software].Google Scholar
Sheets, V., Sandler, I., & West, S. G. (1996). Appraisals of negative events by preadolescent children of divorce. Child Development, 67, 2166–2182. doi:10.2307/1131616Google Scholar
Sinclair, K. R., Cole, D. A., Dukewich, T., Felton, J., Weitlauf, A. S., Maxwell, M. A., … Jacky, A. (2012). Impact of physical and relational peer victimization on depressive cognitions in children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 41, 570–583. doi:10.1080/15374416.2012.704841Google Scholar
Stroud, L. R., Salovey, P., & Epel, E. S. (2002). Sex differences in stress responses: Social rejection versus achievement stress. Biological Psychiatry, 52, 318–327. doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(02)01333-1Google Scholar
Taylor, L., & Ingram, R. E. (1999). Cognitive reactivity and depressotypic information processing in children of depressed mothers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 202–210. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.108.2.202Google Scholar
Taylor, S. E. (2012). Tend and befriend theory. In Van Lange, P. A. M., Kruglanski, A. W. & Higgins, E. T. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (vol. 1); handbook of theories of social psychology (vol. 1) (pp. 32–49). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd. doi:10.4135/9781446249215.n3Google Scholar
Taylor, S. E., Klein, L. C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., & Updegraff, J. A. (2000). Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychological Review, 107, 411–429. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.107.3.411Google Scholar
Tran, C. V., Cole, D. A., & Weiss, B. (2012). Testing reciprocal longitudinal relations between peer victimization and depressive symptoms in young adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 41, 353–360. doi:10.1080/15374416.2012.662674Google Scholar
Solis, E., Antypa, N., Conijn, J. M., Kelderman, H., & Van, d. D. (2017). Psychometric properties of the Leiden index of depression sensitivity (LEIDS). Psychological Assessment, 29(2), 158–171. doi:10.1037/pas0000326Google Scholar
Williams, J. M. G., Van der Does, A. J. W., Barnhofer, T., Crane, C., & Segal, Z. S. (2008). Cognitive reactivity, suicidal ideation and future fluency: Preliminary investigation of a differential activation theory of hopelessness/suicidality. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 83–104. doi:10.1007/s10608-006-9105-yGoogle Scholar
Williams, J. M. G., Watts, F. N., MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. (1988). Cognitive psychology and emotional disorders. New York: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.Google Scholar