Negative interpretation bias as a mechanism of the relationship between rejection sensitivity and depressive symptoms.

Rejection sensitivity and negative cognitive biases have been identified as important risk factors for depression. Rejection sensitivity is defined as the tendency to anxiously anticipate, easily perceive, and overreact to rejection. Although prior studies have found an association between one component of rejection sensitivity, the tendency to anxiously anticipate rejection, and depression, little is known about the mechanisms through which anxious anticipation of rejection might confer depression risk. One possibility is that rejection anticipation leads to negatively biased interpretations, a cognitive risk factor for depression. Results from two studies (one cross-sectional, one longitudinal) indicate that negative interpretation biases mediate the association between the anxious anticipation of rejection and depressive symptoms. These findings indicate that interpretation biases represent a mechanism through which anxious anticipation of rejection confers risk for depression, and suggest that interventions designed to challenge negative interpretations may help to decrease depression risk among individuals who anticipate rejection.

Social performance-based interventions promote gains in social knowledge in the absence of explicit training for youth with autism spectrum disorder.

Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience deficits in social knowledge. It has long been theorized that these youth must learn these skills explicitly, and social skills interventions (SSIs) have followed suit. Recently, performance-based SSIs have emerged, which promote in vivo opportunities for social engagement without explicit instruction. Effects of performance-based SSIs on social knowledge have not been examined. This study employs two discrete samples (one lab-based, one community-based) of youth with ASD to examine the effects of performance-based interventions on social knowledge. Results largely support the efficacy and effectiveness of improving social knowledge by performance-based interventions without explicit teaching. This indicates that youth with ASD may be able to learn these aspects of social cognition implicitly, rather than exclusively explicitly. The results of the current study also suggest that SSI content, dosage, and intensity may relate to these outcomes, which are important considerations in clinical practice and future studies.