Prospectively predicting dietary restraint: the role of interpersonal self-efficacy, weight/shape self-efficacy, and interpersonal stress.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated how the precursors of interpersonal self-efficacy and weight/shape self-efficacy would interact in the face of interpersonal stress to prospectively predict dietary restraint. Three models were explored, each with a different type of interpersonal stress: stress from same sex friendships, opposite sex friendships, or romantic relationships. METHOD: At Time 1 (T1), participants (N = 406) reported on their typical levels of interpersonal self-efficacy and weight/shape self-efficacy, and recent (past 28 days) dietary restraint. At Time 2 (T2), 11 weeks after T1, participants reported on their recent (past 28 days) levels of dietary restraint at that time. Between T1 and T2, participants completed inventories weekly on the previous week's interpersonal stressors. RESULTS: Consistent with prediction, low interpersonal self-efficacy and high weight/shape self-efficacy combined with high interpersonal stress (whether from same sex friendships, opposite sex friendships, or romantic relationships) to predict the highest levels of T2 dietary restraint after controlling for T1 levels. DISCUSSION: These results further link the interpersonal domain with dietary restraint and elucidate characteristics of women particularly apt to increase dietary restraint in response to interpersonal stress.

Impairment in the achievement domain in bipolar spectrum disorders: role of behavioral approach system hypersensitivity and impulsivity.

AIM: Research indicates that bipolar disorder is characterized by both high levels of impairment and high levels of achievement. A critical, and yet largely unexamined question, is: what psychological mechanisms promote high accomplishment (and low impairment) among bipolar spectrum individuals? The aim of this study was to examine this question. The Authors also conceptually explore how the answer to this question can enhance the development of intervention and prevention strategies for adolescents with a bipolar spectrum condition. METHODS: Academic transcript data were obtained for 120 college students who had either a bipolar spectrum disorder (N=54) or no major psychopathology (N=66). RESULTS: Bipolar spectrum individuals obtained a lower cumulative grade point average (GPA, t=-2.9, P=0.005) and dropped more classes (t=2.1, P=or<0.04) than normal controls. The findings also have relevance to the behavioral approach system (BAS) dysregulation theory of bipolar disorder, as well as research on impulsivity among bipolar individuals. Specifically, follow-up analyses revealed that bipolar individuals exhibiting a combination of high BAS drive and low impulsivity earned higher GPAs than the remaining bipolar individuals. Thus, high BAS sensitivity, when paired with low impulsivity, may not be impairing and may contribute to the high achievement sometimes observed among bipolar individuals. CONCLUSION: Such information is important for the development of prevention and intervention programs designed adolescents that lower risk for bipolar impairment without decreasing achievement.

Predicting bulimic symptoms: an interactive model of self-efficacy, perfectionism, and perceived weight status.

An interactive model of perfectionism, perceived weight status, and self-efficacy was tested on 406 women to predict the bulimic symptoms of binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors separately. This longitudinal study assessed hypothesized vulnerabilities of high perfectionism and low self-efficacy and the stressor of feeling overweight at Time 1 and then gathered weekly assessments of binge eating, vomiting, laxative use, fasting, and diet pill use for 11 weeks. As predicted, results showed that perfectionism, weight perception, and self-efficacy interacted to prospectively predict binge eating. In particular, women high in perfectionism who felt they were overweight and who had low self-efficacy reported the most number of weeks of binge eating. This interactive model did not predict inappropriate compensatory behaviors. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.

Development of gender differences in depression: an elaborated cognitive vulnerability-transactional stress theory.

Descriptive epidemiological studies are reviewed, showing that the female preponderance in depression begins to emerge around age 13. A developmentally sensitive, elaborated cognitive vulnerability-transactional stress model of depression is proposed to explain the "big fact" of the emergence of the gender difference in depression. The elaborated causal chain posits that negative events contribute to initial elevations of general negative affect. Generic cognitive vulnerability factors then moderate the likelihood that the initial negative affect will progress to full-blown depression. Increases in depression can lead transactionally to more self-generated dependent negative life events and thus begin the causal chain again. Evidence is reviewed providing preliminary support for the model as an explanation for the development of the gender difference in depression during adolescence.

Hopelessness depression as a distinct dimension of depressive symptoms among clinical and non-clinical samples.

Subtyping depression has been an interest of theorists and clinicians for at least four centuries. In this paper, we examined the validity of the symptom cluster component of the hopelessness theory of depression. We used structural equation modeling analyses on large samples of psychiatric outpatients (N=1604, 844, and 680) and Air Force cadets (N=1404) who completed the items of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Findings were supportive of the hopelessness depression cluster as a distinct depressive syndrome. Implications for the nosology of depression and for depression theory were discussed.

Remitted depression studies as tests of the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression onset: a critique and conceptual analysis.

Investigations of cognitive patterns among individuals who have recovered from a depressive episode (i.e., remitted depressives) have figured importantly in evaluations of the validity of the vulnerability hypotheses of the cognitive theories of depression. However, we suggest that remitted depression studies as typically conducted and interpreted are inadequate tests of the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression onset for four reasons: (1) remitted depression studies are based on the erroneous assumption that cognitive vulnerability should be an immutable trait; (2) remitted depression studies use a logically "backward" participant selection strategy in which participants are selected on the basis of the "dependent" variable (depression) and then compared on the "independent" variable (cognitive vulnerability), which is likely to result in heterogeneity of cognitive vulnerability among both the remitted depressed as well as the nondepressed groups given the causal relations specified in the cognitive theories of depression; (3) many remitted depression studies have ignored the possible activating role of stress in the cognitive vulnerability-stress theories, particularly Beck's theory, and thus, may attempt to assess cognitive vulnerability at a time when it is not operative (i.e., priming hypothesis); and (4) remitted depression studies inappropriately use postmorbid participants to test causal hypotheses, and therefore, are ambiguous about whether negative cognitive styles observed in remitted depressed persons are vulnerabilities as opposed to consequences of depression (i.e., scar hypothesis). As a remedy, we advocate the use of a theory-guided behavioral high-risk strategy to more adequately test the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression onset.

Hopelessness as a mediator of the association between social support and depressive symptoms: findings of a study of men with HIV.

Data from a prospective longitudinal study were used to investigate whether hopelessness mediates the association between social support and depression, as hypothesized by L. Y. Abramson, G. I. Metalsky, and L. B. Alloy (1989). Measures of hopelessness, social support, and depression were administered to 103 HIV-infected men and readministered 6 months later. Findings indicated that low baseline social support predicted increases in hopelessness and depression. Increases in hopelessness predicted increases in depression after controlling for baseline social support. Low baseline social support did not predict increased depression when hopelessness was controlled statistically.

Emotional, physical, and sexual maltreatment in childhood versus adolescence and personality dysfunction in young adulthood.

The current study examined the unique relations of childhood and adolescent maltreatment (emotional, physical, and sexual) with DSM-III-R personality disorder (PD) dimensions in a sample of undergraduates. The results suggested that reported levels of childhood sexual maltreatment were uniquely related to six of the 11 PD dimensions examined. In contrast, reported levels of adolescent emotional maltreatment were uniquely related to only three PD dimensions and reported levels of adolescent physical maltreatment were uniquely related to only one PD dimension. Thus, whereas reported levels of adolescent emotional and physical maltreatment demonstrated some specificity to the various kinds of personality dysfunction, reported levels of childhood sexual maltreatment appeared to be related to more generalized personality dysfunction in young adulthood.

Childhood maltreatment and college students' current suicidal ideation: a test of the hopelessness theory.

Few studies have examined the relation between childhood maltreatment and adult suicidality within the context of a coherent theoretical model. The current study evaluates the ability of the hopelessness theory of depression's (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989) etiological chain to account for this relation in a sample of 297 undergraduates. Supporting the model, emotional, but not physical or sexual, maltreatment was uniquely related to average levels of suicidal ideation across a 2.5-year follow-up. Further, students' cognitive styles and average levels of hopelessness partially mediated this relation. Although these results cannot speak to causality, they support the developmental model evaluated.

The Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Project: lifetime history of axis I psychopathology in individuals at high and low cognitive risk for depression.

The authors tested the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression with a retrospective behavioral high-risk design. Individuals without current Axis I diagnoses who exhibited either negative or positive cognitive styles were compared on lifetime prevalence of depressive and other disorders and the clinical parameters of depressive episodes. Consistent with predictions, cognitively high-risk participants had higher lifetime prevalence than low-risk participants of major and hopelessness depression and marginally higher prevalence of minor depression. These group differences were specific to depressive disorders. The high-risk group also had more severe depressions than the low-risk group, but not longer duration or earlier onset depressions. The risk group differences in prevalence of depressive disorders were not mediated by current depressive symptoms.

Perfectionism, perceived weight status, and self-esteem interact to predict bulimic symptoms: a model of bulimic symptom development.

An interactive model of perfectionism, perceived weight status, and self-esteem was tested on 342 female undergraduates to predict bulimic symptoms. Using a longitudinal design, the authors tested the model on data collected at 2 points: the spring of participants' senior year of high school and during participants' first year of college. The authors hypothesized and found that self-esteem moderates the interaction between perfectionism and perceived weight status in predicting bulimic symptoms. Women who are high in perfectionism and who consider themselves overweight exhibit bulimic symptoms only if they have low self-esteem (i.e., if they doubt they can attain their high body standards). High self-esteem women with the same diathesis-stress conditions are less likely to exhibit bulimic symptoms. These findings clarify the role of perfectionism in bulimic symptomatology.

Depressogenic cognitive styles: predictive validity, information processing and personality characteristics, and developmental origins.

Two of the major cognitive theories of depression, the theory of Beck [Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: clinical, experimental and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row. and Beck, A. T. (1987) Cognitive models of depression. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: an International Quarterly, 1, 5-37] and the hopelessness theory [Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, (1989) Hopelessness depression: a theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358-372], include the hypothesis that particular negative cognitive styles increase individuals' likelihood of developing episodes of depression, in particular, a cognitively mediated subtype of depression, when they encounter negative life events. The Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) project is a two-site, prospective longitudinal study designed to test this cognitive vulnerability hypothesis, as well as the other etiological hypotheses of Beck's and the hopelessness theories of depression. In this article, based on CVD project findings to date, we review evidence that the hypothesized depressogenic cognitive styles do indeed confer vulnerability for clinically significant depressive disorders and suicidality. In addition, we present evidence regarding moderators of these depressogenic cognitive styles, the information processing and personality correlates of these styles and the possible developmental antecedents of these styles. We end with a consideration of future research directions and the clinical implications of cognitive vulnerability to depression.

Development of gender differences in depression: description and possible explanations.

This article reviews the description and possible explanations for the development of gender differences in depression in children and adolescents. The emerging gender difference (more girls depressed than boys) in depressed mood and depressive disorders appears after the age of 13 years or midpuberty. Currently, little evidence supports that biological factors are an explanation. Genetic factors are associated more strongly with depression among pubertal girls than boys. Regarding cognitive factors, ruminative response style, but not dysfunctional attitudes or attributional style, has been supported to be a possible explanation. Studies on childhood adversities and gender role have provided evidence explaining why more girls are depressed than boys. Girls are more likely to experience negative events in the family than boys, and these adversities are in turn associated with elevated depression. Girls identify more strongly with a feminine stereotype of needing to appear thin and consequently become more dissatisfied with their body shape and physical appearance, which in turn is associated with increased depression.

Suicidality and cognitive vulnerability to depression among college students: a prospective study.

Using a behavioral high-risk two-site prospective design, we tested the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses about suicidality. Consistent with prediction, the high cognitive risk (HR) participants were more likely than the low cognitive risk (LR) participants to exhibit suicidality, measured by both structured diagnostic interview and questionnaire self-report, during the 2 1/2 year prospective follow-up period. Moreover, when the prospective period was examined as a whole, the mediation hypothesis derived from the cognitive theories was strongly supported. Hopelessness appeared to mediate the obtained relationship between cognitive vulnerability and suicidality. Finally, the obtained relationship between cognitive vulnerability and suicidality was not mediated by other hypothesized risk factors for suicidality not specified in the cognitive theories, such as past suicidality, personal history of depressive disorders, borderline and antisocial personality dysfunction, and parental history of depression.

The dynamic self: how the content and structure of the self-concept change with mood.

Change in the content and structure of the self-concept was examined in a 2-year prospective study of depression. A self-descriptive card-sorting task measured the self-concepts of participants who were either high or low in cognitive vulnerability to depression at 2 times, once when their mood was low and once when it was not. Analyses examined change in the positive and negative content of the self-concept and in 3 features of self-structure: differential importance, compartmentalization, and self-complexity. Findings suggest that change in the content of the self-concept simply reflects life circumstances, whereas change in self-structure may help to counteract stress and negative mood.

Development of depression from preadolescence to young adulthood: emerging gender differences in a 10-year longitudinal study.

The authors investigated the emergence of gender differences in clinical depression and the overall development of depression from preadolescence to young adulthood among members of a complete birth cohort using a prospective longitudinal approach with structured diagnostic interviews administered 5 times over the course of 10 years. Small gender differences in depression (females greater than males) first began to emerge between the ages of 13 and 15. However, the greatest increase in this gender difference occurred between ages 15 and 18. Depression rates and accompanying gender differences for a university student subsample were no different than for a nonuniversity subsample. There was no gender difference for depression recurrence or for depression symptom severity. The peak increase in both overall rates of depression and new cases of depression occurred between the ages of 15 and 18. Results suggest that middle-to-late adolescence (ages 15-18) may be a critical time for studying vulnerability to depression because of the higher depression rates and the greater risk for depression onset and dramatic increase in gender differences in depression during this period.

Negative reactions to depressive behaviors: a communication theories analysis.

Interpersonal aspects of depression have received considerable research attention in the past 2 decades. This work often has been guided by J. C. Coyne's (1976b) interactional model of depression or P. M. Lewinsohn's (1974) social skill deficit theory of depression. A review of this research indicates that depressed people reliably experience rejection from those in their social environment and that depression generally is associated with impairments in social behavior. However, this research does not explain exactly what depressed people do to elicit rejection, or exactly why others react negatively to them. Research derived from communication theories on responsiveness, politeness, and expectations for nonverbal involvement illuminates the interpersonal cycle in depression. The role of these impairments in the cause, symptoms, course, subtypes, and therapy of depression is discussed.

Heterogeneity of cognitive style among depressed inpatients.

An inference from the cognitive theories of depression is that only a subset of depressed individuals should exhibit distinctively negative cognitive styles. Although this inference has been supported by previous research, attempts to characterize these depressives have yielded few identifying variables. This study of psychiatric inpatients and normal control subjects identified several characteristics of depressives with very negative cognitive styles by (a) examining traditional depression subtypes, (b) grouping depressives on the basis of clinical observations, and (c) asking whether sex, developmental events, and history and severity of depression predict cognitive styles. We found that borderline personality disorder, negative family dynamics during childhood, a history of sexual abuse, and severity of depression predict cognitive styles. We speculate that aversive developmental events may contribute to cognitive vulnerability to depression.

Depressive reactions to failure in a naturalistic setting: a test of the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression.

We tested the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression and an integration of the two by examining whether a stable, global attributional style (attributional diathesis) and low self-esteem interacted with the outcomes students received on a midterm examination to predict their subsequent depressive reactions over the course of 5 days. Students' immediate depressive reactions (on receipt of grades) were predicted solely by the examination outcome, whereas their enduring depressive reactions during the following 4 days were predicted by the Attributional Diathesis x Low Self-Esteem x Failure interaction. The results also indicated that the three-way interaction predicted enduring depressive reactions through the mediating role of hopelessness.

Schematic and situational determinants of depressed and nondepressed students' interpretation of feedback.

We examined whether depressed persons' social skill deficits contribute to their negative cognitions and whether this contribution is independent of their negative schemata. Depressed (n = 60) and nondepressed (n = 60) subjects engaged in group discussions. We assessed subjects' social competence schemata with a questionnaire and subjects' actual level of social competence in the discussion through objective ratings made by codiscussants and outside observers. We found that independently of their negative schemata, depressed subjects' social skill deficits explained a significant portion of the variance in their more negative interpretation of feedback (relative to nondepressed subjects'). This suggests that real deficits in depressed persons' performance compound the effects of their negative schemata and further contribute to their negative cognitions. We also further explored findings by Dykman et al. (1989) and Lewinsohn et al. (1980).