Stress-reactive rumination, negative cognitive style, and stressors in relationship to depressive symptoms in non-clinical youth

Influence of childhood trauma on adolescent internet addiction: The mediating roles of loneliness and negative coping styles

BACKGROUND

In the information age, the use of the internet and multimedia tools has large effects on the life of middle school students. Improper use of the internet may result in internet addiction (IA). Thus, actively exploring the factors influencing adolescent and the mechanism of addiction as well as promoting adolescent physical and mental health and academic development are priorities that families, schools, and society urgently need to address.

AIM

To explore the effect of childhood trauma on adolescent IA and to consider the roles of loneliness and negative coping styles.

METHODS

A total of 11310 students from six junior high schools in Henan, China, completed the child trauma questionnaire, IA test, loneliness scale, and simple coping style questionnaire. In addition, data were collected from 1044 adolescents with childhood trauma for analysis with IBM SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 28.0; we examined the relationships among childhood trauma, IA, loneliness, and negative coping styles.

RESULTS

We found that childhood trauma not only directly affected adolescents' IA but also affected IA through loneliness and negative coping styles.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, this study has theoretical implications regarding adolescent mental health and may inform interventions for IA.

Within-person Changes in Co-rumination and Rumination in Adolescence: Examining Heterogeneity and the Moderating Roles of Gender and Time

Although previous work has consistently identified positive associations between co-rumination and rumination during adolescence, little to no research has examined how this relationship operates on the person-specific level. The current study aimed to extend current developmental theories of co-rumination and rumination by examining within-person associations between these constructs. Survey data was collected from 1502 adolescents (M_age = 13.20; 52% girls; 52% non-Hispanic White) every six-months across the span of 3.5 years. The results showed that at time-points when adolescents reported co-ruminating more than their usual level, they reported concurrent increases in rumination. This association was stronger for boys and strengthened over time. Despite substantial between-person heterogeneity, 97% of adolescents showed positive associations between co-rumination and rumination. This research has important implications for mental health professionals, school systems, and parents who may look to teach adolescents about effective emotion-regulation.

Stress-Related Growth in Adolescents Returning to School After COVID-19 School Closure

The move to remote learning during COVID-19 has impacted billions of students. While research shows that school closure, and the pandemic more generally, has led to student distress, the possibility that these disruptions can also prompt growth in is a worthwhile question to investigate. The current study examined stress-related growth (SRG) in a sample of students returning to campus after a period of COVID-19 remote learning (n = 404, age = 13-18). The degree to which well-being skills were taught at school (i.e., positive education) before the COVID-19 outbreak and student levels of SRG upon returning to campus was tested via structural equation modeling. Positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use in students were examined as mediators. The model provided a good fit [χ 2 = 5.37, df = 3, p = 0.146, RMSEA = 0.044 (90% CI = 0.00-0.10), SRMR = 0.012, CFI = 99, TLI = 0.99] with 56% of the variance in SRG explained. Positive education explained 15% of the variance in cognitive reappraisal, 7% in emotional processing, and 16% in student strengths use during remote learning. The results are discussed using a positive education paradigm with implications for teaching well-being skills at school to foster growth through adversity and assist in times of crisis.

Neighbourhood influences and its association with the mental health of adolescents in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

BACKGROUND

Mental health problems are affecting more children and adolescents worldwide. Individual, family and school factors are often linked with mental health problems among adolescents.

AIM

To determine the neighbourhood factors influencing the prevalence of abnormal mental health status among adolescents in an urban population.

METHOD

A cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescents aged 13, 14 and 16 years old from thirteen secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur using validated questionnaires. A total of 567 adolescents participated in this study.

RESULTS

The prevalence of abnormal mental health status in this study was 4.4%. In multivariable analysis, female (OR = 1.79, 95%CI: 1.11-2.89), having divorced parents (OR = 3.53, 95%CI: 1.96-6.36), high educational stress (OR = 8.18, 95%CI: 4.25-15.75), medium educational stress (OR = 2.99, 95%CI: 1.53-5.83), whose house has been broken in before (OR = 2.02, 95%CI: 1.11-3.68) and living in a neighbourhood with low socioeconomic status (OR = 2.09, 95%CI: 1.23-3.56) were more likely to have abnormal mental health status.

CONCLUSIONS

Neighbourhood factors were found to be significant in determining adolescents' mental health status. The findings emphasize the importance of those in the public health sector to highlight these significant neighbourhood factors to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Swift action needs to be taken by the Ministry to provide solutions related to the neighbourhood factors and this can contribute to improvement in the adolescents' mental health.

Life events and hopelessness depression: The influence of affective experience

This study explored the association of the affective experience (AE) of life events on hopelessness depression (HD). Undergraduates (N = 301) participating in a 12-week prospective study completed measures of HD, cognitive style, and psychological stress. The results indicate AE is an underlying mechanism influencing the longitudinal link between life events and HD. Negative life events with clear negative AE directly promoted the development of HD. Positive life events with clear positive AE directly impeded the development of HD. Neutral life events with mixed AE directly and interacting with negative cognitive style promoted the development of HD. The results should increase understanding of the hopelessness theory of depression, and suggest that neutral life events should be important elements in depression therapy.

Endocrinological and subjective stress responses in children with depressive, anxiety, or externalizing disorders

In this study, we used a stress test to investigate endocrinological and subjective stress responses of 8- to 14-year-old children with internalizing or externalizing disorders and healthy controls. The sample (N = 170) consisted of clinical and community children. Parents were given a diagnostic interview to diagnose their children's psychiatric condition. We measured saliva cortisol and subjectively experienced arousal in children before and after the Trier Social Stress Test for Children. Children also rated their performance immediately after the stress test, and 1 hr later they rated their positive and negative thoughts about this stressful event. Children with internalizing or externalizing disorders exhibited a blunted cortisol response compared to healthy controls. Depressed children rated their test performance lower and reported more negative thoughts after the test in comparison to healthy controls, anxious children reported more arousal before and after the task, and children with externalizing disorders reported more positive thoughts. In regression analyses, cortisol and subjective stress responses were both predictive of psychiatric disorders. The study extends previous work on the relation between psychiatric disorders and children's stress responses to an experimentally induced stress task by including a broad range of psychiatric disorders and by integrating endocrinological and subjective stress responses.

Disrupted amygdala-prefrontal connectivity during emotion regulation links stress-reactive rumination and adolescent depressive symptoms

Rumination in response to stress (stress-reactive rumination) has been linked to higher levels of depressive symptoms in adolescents. However, no work to date has examined the neural mechanisms connecting stress-reactive rumination and adolescent depressive symptoms. The present work attempted to bridge this gap through an fMRI study of 41 adolescent girls (M_age = 15.42, SD = 0.33) – a population in whom elevated levels of depressive symptoms, rumination, and social stress sensitivity are displayed. During the scan, participants completed two tasks: an emotion regulation task and a social stress task. Using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses, we found that positive functional connectivity between the amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) during the emotion regulation task mediated the association between stress-reactive rumination and depressive symptoms. These results suggest that stress-reactive rumination may interfere with the expression and development of neural connectivity patterns associated with effective emotion regulation, which may contribute, in turn, to heightened depressive symptoms.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome at Age 16 Years

BACKGROUND

In the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort, chronic disabling fatigue lasting ≥6 months affected 1.3% of 13-year-olds, was equally common in boys and girls, and became more prevalent with increasing family adversity.

METHODS

ALSPAC data were used to estimate the prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) at age 16 years, defined by parental report of unexplained disabling fatigue lasting ≥6 months. We investigated gender and a composite 14-item family adversity index as risk factors. School absence data were obtained from the National Pupil Database. Multiple imputation was used to address bias caused by missing data.

RESULTS

The prevalence of CFS was 1.86% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.47 to 2.24). After excluding children with high levels of depressive symptoms, the prevalence was 0.60% (95% CI: 0.37 to 0.84). Authorized school absences were much higher (mean difference: 35.6 [95% CI: 26.4 to 44.9] half-day sessions per academic year) and reported depressive symptoms were much more likely (odds ratio [OR]: 11.0 [95% CI: 5.92 to 20.4]) in children with CFS than in those without CFS. Female gender (OR: 1.95 [95% CI: 1.33 to 2.86]) and family adversity (OR: 1.20 [95% CI: 1.01 to 1.42] per unit family adversity index) were also associated with CFS.

CONCLUSIONS

CFS affected 1.9% of 16-year-olds in a UK birth cohort and was positively associated with higher family adversity. Gender was a risk factor at age 16 years but not at age 13 years or in 16-year-olds without high levels of depressive symptoms.

The Hopelessness Theory of Depression: A Quarter Century in Review

Since the formulation of the hopelessness theory of depression (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989) a quarter century ago, it has garnered considerable interest. The current paper presents a systematic review of this theory including its subsequent elaborations (Rose and Abramson's [1992] developmental elaboration, Abela and Sarin's [2002] weakest-link approach, Panzarella, Alloy, and Whitehouse's [2006] expansion of the hopelessness theory, and the hopelessness theory of suicide [Abramson et al., 2000]), followed by recommendations for future study. Although empirical support was consistently found for several major components of the hopelessness theory, further work is required assessing this theory in relation to clinically significant phenomena. Among the most significant hindrances to advancement in this area is the frequent conceptual confusion between the hopelessness theory and the reformulated learned helplessness theory.

Integrating Beck's cognitive model and the response style theory in an adolescent sample

Depression becomes more prevalent as individuals progress from childhood to adulthood. Thus, empirically supported and popular cognitive vulnerability theories to explain depression in adulthood have begun to be tested in younger age groups, particularly adolescence, a time of significant cognitive development. Beck's cognitive theory and the response style theory are well known, empirically supported theories of depression. The current, two-wave longitudinal study (N = 462; mean age = 16.01 years; SD = 0.69; 63.9% female) tested various proposed integrative models of Beck's cognitive theory and the response style theory, as well as the original theories themselves, to determine if and how these cognitive vulnerabilities begin to intertwine in adolescence. Of the integrative models tested-all with structural equation modeling in AMOS 21-the best-fitting integrative model was a moderation model wherein schemata influenced rumination, and rumination then influenced other cognitive variables in Beck's model. Findings revealed that this integrated model fit the data better than the response style theory and explained 1.2% more variance in depressive symptoms. Additionally, multigroup analyses comparing the fit of the best-fitting integrated model across adolescents with clinical and subclinical depressive symptoms revealed that the model was not stable between these two subsamples. However, of the hypotheses relevant to the integrative model, only 1 of the 18 associations was significantly different between the clinical and subclinical samples. Regardless, the integrated model was not superior to the more parsimonious model from Beck's cognitive theory. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Cognitive vulnerabilities as predictors of stress generation in early adolescence: pathway to depressive symptoms

Although individuals with depression have been found to experience a higher rate of stress in their lives, it remains unclear to what extent other personal characteristics may contribute to stress generation. The current study extended past research by examining the effects of two theoretically and empirically supported cognitive vulnerabilities to depression (negative cognitive style and rumination) as predictors of dependent interpersonal and achievement events, independent events, and relational peer victimization. In a diverse sample of 301 early adolescents (56 % female; M(age) = 12.82 years), we found that negative cognitive style prospectively predicted the experience of dependent interpersonal stress and relational victimization, and that rumination did not predict stress in any of the domains. Furthermore, the occurrence of intervening stress mediated the associations between negative cognitive style and subsequent depressive symptoms. Additionally, whereas negative cognitive style predicted relational victimization among both boys and girls, girls were particularly vulnerable to developing depressive symptoms following the occurrence of relational victimization. Thus, a negative cognitive style may contribute to the occurrence of stressful events, which in turn increases depressive symptoms. Girls may be particularly reactive to relational victimization, representing one pathway through which sex differences in depression may emerge.

Different trajectories of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents: predictors and differences in girls and boys

The development of depressive symptoms in childhood and adolescence can follow different pathways. This study examined heterogeneity in the development of self-reported depressive symptoms and the predictive influence of mothers' depressive symptoms, the number of life events, and loss events via growth mixture modeling over a four-year period in a large community sample of German children and adolescents (N = 3,902; mean age 11.39 years; 49.6% female). This procedure was conducted for the total sample as well as for separate samples of girls and boys. Four different classes of trajectories for the total and the girls' model were identified, but only three classes for the boys. Girls showed higher intercepts and stronger increases in symptoms over time, whereas boys displayed stronger decreases. In the total model, mothers' depressive symptoms and the number of life events significantly increased the level of depressive symptoms. In the gender models, only mothers' depressive symptoms showed significant influence on the level of symptoms in girls and boys, whereas for life events this was only true for boys. In every model, the significant predictors discriminated at least between some classes. Loss events showed no significant influence in any model. In sum, there are meaningful differences in the development of depressive symptoms in girls and boys. These results have several implications for prevention and future research.

A vulnerability-stress examination of response styles theory in adolescence: stressors, sex differences, and symptom specificity

The stress-reactivity extension of the response styles theory of depression suggests that individuals who ruminate (or fail to engage in distraction or problem solving) in response to dysphoric mood are likely to experience higher levels of depression following stress. However, previous studies have not addressed (a) the specificity of these vulnerability-stress relations to symptoms of depression following different types of stressors, and (b) to what extent rumination and stress can account for the sex differences in depression that emerge during early adolescence. A community sample of 256 early adolescents (ages 12-13) completed a baseline visit and a follow-up visit 9 months later. Response styles and symptoms of depression and anxiety were assessed at baseline, and intervening life events, emotional maltreatment, peer relational victimization, and symptoms of depression and anxiety were assessed at follow-up. Higher rumination and lower distraction/problem solving interacted with several types of stressors to predict higher levels of symptoms of depression but not anxiety. Rumination was more strongly associated with elevations in depressive symptoms following the occurrence of relational victimization events in girls than in boys. In addition, dependent interpersonal stress mediated the sex difference in depressive symptoms that emerged at follow-up, and this indirect pathway was stronger among adolescents who tended to ruminate. Rumination may confer vulnerability that is specific to symptoms of depression following recent stressors during early adolescence. Girls who ruminate may be particularly likely to experience depression following relational victimization, and dependent interpersonal stressors may help to account for girls' greater risk for depression during adolescence.