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Objective/Background: Despite increasing attention on transgenerational trauma, currently no comprehensive model and measure exists to be applied on various populations. This study represents the first step in the validation of such a model and a related scale. The Historical Intergenerational Trauma Questionnaire (HITT-Q) assesses family and offspring self-reported vulnerability and resilience, as well as offspring historical moral injury and current levels of insidious trauma. Method: We developed the HITT-Q based on the cross-population model (HITT model; [Starrs, C. & Békés, V. (2024). Historical and transgenerational trauma: A conceptual framework. Traumatology. In Press]) which incorporates key findings in existing population specific studies. For initial validation of the model and its measurement, Holocaust survivors’ offspring (N = 1104) completed the HITT-Q, measures of current mental health symptoms (PTSD, C-PTSD, anxiety, and depression), and a resilience scale. Results: In line with the HITT model, confirmatory factor analyses supported a 12-factor solution with the following factors under theorized dimensions: I. Family Vulnerability: (1) Dysregulated and Trauma-related Communication; (2)Trauma-influenced Parenting, (3) Fear; (4) Distress; II. (5) Family Resilience, III. Offspring Vulnerability: (6) Escape; (7) Heightened Responsibility; (8) Trauma-related distress; IV. Offspring Resilience: (9) Coping; (10) Belonging; (11) Values; V. (12) Historical Moral injury. The 12-factor model showed acceptable to good internal validity, and comparison with an existing measure of transgenerational Holocaust trauma indicated good concurrent validity. Finally, the HITT-Q demonstrated predictive validity for mental health symptoms and current resilience. Conclusions: The current study represents the first step in validating the HITT-Q as a comprehensive measure of historical intergenerational vulnerability and resilience. Our findings provide strong support for the underlying model, and suggest that the HITT-Q represents a valuable scale for both research and historical trauma-informed care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of 152 community adults examined whether perfectionism interacts with daily perceived control to predict depressive and anxious symptoms over 4 years. Participants completed measures of higher-order perfectionism dimensions [self-critical (SC), personal standards (PS)] and neuroticism at time 1, daily diaries for 14 consecutive days to assess perceived control over most bothersome events at time 2 three years later, and measures of depressive and anxious symptoms at time 1, time 2, and time 3 four years after baseline. Hierarchical regression analyses of moderator effects demonstrated that individuals with higher SC perfectionism at time 1 and lower perceived control across daily stressors at time 2 had higher levels of depressive symptoms at time 3 than others, adjusting for the effects of time 1 and time 2 depressive and anxious symptoms. Higher SC perfectionism also interacted with lower perceived control to predict time 3 anxious symptoms. PS perfectionism and neuroticism did not interact with perceived control to predict time 3 depressive or anxious symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of addressing cognitive appraisals of one's control over handling daily stressors for the prevention and treatment of depressive and anxious symptoms in individuals with higher SC perfectionism. Public Significance Statement: This study demonstrates that individuals with higher self-critical perfectionism are vulnerable to depressive and anxious symptoms over the longer-term when these individuals have lower perceived control over daily stressors. The findings highlight the importance of considering self-critical perfectionism and daily perceived control in the prevention and treatment of depression and anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current longitudinal study examined whether the personality vulnerabilities of self-criticism and dependency prospectively predicted stress generation in Chinese adolescents. Participants included 1,116 adolescents (588 girls and 528 boys), aged 15 to 18 years from rural, urban and ultra-urban mainland China. Participants completed self-report measures of personality, depressive and anxious symptoms and participated in a clinical interview assessing lifetime history of depression. The occurrence of negative life events was measured using a contextual-threat interview every 6-months for a total period of 18-months. Logistic regression analyses showed that after controlling for past depressive episodes and current depressive and anxious symptoms, self-criticism was prospectively associated with the occurrence of interpersonal stress generation, but not noninterpersonal stress generation. Dependency also predicted interpersonal stress generation, although only in girls and not boys. In line with previous Western findings, girls reported more interpersonal stress generation. Analyses across 3 levels of urbanization revealed several significant differences including higher reported interpersonal stress generation in urban girls than urban boys and overall higher levels of negative life events in ultra-urban youth. In sum, findings from the current study suggest that the stress generation process may be generalizable to Chinese youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maladaptive coping has been shown to be related to increased symptoms of distress and lower levels of well-being, whereas the use of adaptive coping has been shown to diminish distress and improve functioning. This suggests that change in coping may constitute a significant mechanism of change in psychotherapy. Utilizing a novel observer-rating method for assessing coping, the current report examined changes in overall coping functioning (OCF) in three participants with diverse personality disorders who were undergoing two different types of psychotherapy (cognitive-behavioral therapy and dynamic therapy) for recurrent major depression. Results showed that overall coping functioning improved in two cases and remained stable in a third. Preliminary findings, based on a detailed examination of changes in specific coping patterns, suggest that improvement may differ according to severity of personality pathology. As hypothesized, coping improved in both types of psychotherapy. Thus, overall results suggest that coping may constitute an important general mechanism of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world where genocides and wars are constant reality, understanding the long-term psychological impact of massive trauma on survivors, as well as identifying ways to promote resilience among them are crucial. Research has repeatedly demonstrated Holocaust survivors' remarkable capacity to live with horrible memories and still function well; however, the exact nature of defensive and coping processes that allowed this have remained mostly unclear. The present study aims to address this question by identifying Coping Action Patterns in survivors' Holocaust (HN) versus other, pre- and post-Holocaust (ON) narratives. We analyzed 169 thematic units in 20 in-depth interviews with Holocaust survivors using a sequential explanatory mixed-method approach. We found that the proportion of adaptive coping patterns was higher in HN compared to ON, and that the coping category Relatedness, as well as specific individual coping strategies: Self-Reliance, Escape, and Information Seeking occurred more frequently in HN compared to ON, although none of these differences reached statistical significance. A modified interpretative phenomenological approach was used to identify common themes within each coping strategy. The results implicate that maintaining a dual representation of trauma versus regular, non-traumatic autobiographic memories may play a crucial role in the resilience of massive trauma survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of 145 community adults examined heightened interpersonal-sadness sensitivity as a mediator of the relationship between self-critical (SC) perfectionism and stress generation four years later. Participants completed questionnaires assessing perfectionism dimensions at Time 1, baseline depressive symptoms at Time 1 and Year 3, daily negative social interactions and affect for 14 consecutive days at Month 6 and Year 3, and a contextual-threat stress interview at Year 4. Path analyses indicated that SC perfectionism predicted daily interpersonal-sadness sensitivity (i.e., greater increases in sadness in response to increases in negative social interactions) between Month 6 and Year 3. This, in turn, explained why individuals with higher SC perfectionism had greater interpersonal stress generation four years later, controlling for the effects of depressive symptoms. Findings also demonstrated that responding to negative social interactions with broader negative affect or accumulated negative social interactions did not mediate the prospective relation between SC perfectionism and interpersonal stress generation. SC perfectionism was not related to Year 4 noninterpersonal stress generation or independent stress. Findings highlight the importance of targeting interpersonal-sadness sensitivity in order to reduce the propensity of SC perfectionistic individuals to generate negative interpersonal life events several years into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is extensive literature examining the psychological adaptation of survivors after the Holocaust, including studies of Holocaust narratives (HN). As a measure of psychological adaptation, defense mechanisms (DM) have been studied in various clinical samples, however, to date, not in Holocaust narratives. Using a standardized observer-rated measure, we assessed DM in Holocaust versus pre/post Holocaust narratives (other narratives [ON]) in 20 in-depth survivor interviews. Regarding individual DM, isolation of affect and self-assertion were statistically more frequent in the HN than the ON. High adaptive (mature) level defenses were more frequent in the HNs than the ON. Furthermore, the overall defensive functioning (ODF) was higher in the HN than the ON, contradicting previous findings showing lower defensive functioning in life-threatening situations. Possible explanations include differences in the nature of trauma, the time elapsed between the trauma and the interview, and the specificity of the sample. A qualitative overview with several examples from the narratives are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stress generation is a process in which individuals, through their depressive symptoms, personal characteristics, and/or behaviors, contribute to the occurrence of stressful life events. While this process has been well documented in adults, few studies have examined it in children. The present study examines whether cognitive and interpersonal vulnerability factors to depression contribute to stress generation in children, independent of their current depressive symptoms. Participants included 140 children (ages 6 to 14) and one of their parents. During an initial assessment, children completed self-report measures assessing cognitive and interpersonal vulnerability factors to depression. Children and their parents also completed measures assessing depressive symptoms. One year later, children and their parents participated in a semi-structured interview assessing the occurrence of stressful life events in the past year. Multi-level modeling results provided strong support for the stress generation process in children of affectively ill parents and highlight the importance of considering gender and age moderation effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined whether excessive reassurance seeking serves as a vulnerability factor to depressive symptoms in a sample of children of affectively ill parents using a multiwave longitudinal design and experience sampling methodology. In addition, we examined whether self-esteem moderates the association between excessive reassurance seeking and increases in depressive symptoms following increases in negative events. At Time 1, 56 children (ages 7--14) completed measures assessing excessive reassurance seeking, low self--esteem, and depressive symptoms. Subsequently, children were given a handheld personal computer (HP Jornada 690), which signaled them to complete measures assessing depressive symptoms and negative events at six randomly selected times over an 8--week follow--up interval. In line with hypotheses, higher levels of reassurance seeking were associated with greater increases in depressive symptoms following increases in negative events. Contrary to hypotheses, however, the strength of this association was not moderated by self--esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of community adults compared the relative predictive value of specific perfectionism components in predicting daily stress, coping, and affect in the short- and long-term. Participants completed several measures of higher-order dimensions of personal standards perfectionism (PSP) and self-critical perfectionism (SCP) at Time 1, including the Blatt, D'Afflitti, and Quinlan (1976) Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, the Frost, Marten, Lahart, and Rosenblate (1990) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Hewitt and Flett (1991) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, and the Slaney, Rice, Mobley, Trippi, and Ashby (2001) revised Almost Perfect Scale. Then, six months and three years later, participants completed daily questionnaires of stress, coping, and negative affect for 14 consecutive days. Correlational and multiple regression analyses showed that the DEQ self-criticism measure of SCP uniquely predicted aggregated daily event stress and negative affect at Month 6 and Year 3, whereas the FMPS concern over mistakes measure of SCP uniquely predicted negative social interactions and HMPS socially prescribed perfectionism measure of SCP uniquely predicted avoidant coping. The APS-R high standards measure of PSP uniquely predicted problem-focused coping at Month 6 and Year 3. These findings demonstrate the differential predictive value of specific perfectionism components in prospectively predicting various aspects of daily psychosocial (mal)adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study tested the vulnerability and sex differences hypotheses of the response styles theory of depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991). Participants included 494 tenth-grade students (M = 15.25 years, SD = 0.47) recruited from two secondary schools in Beijing, China. Participants completed self-report measures assessing rumination and neuroticism as well as a semistructured clinical interview assessing current and past clinically significant depressive episodes. Higher levels of rumination were associated with a greater likelihood of exhibiting both a current depressive episode and a past history of depressive episodes even after controlling for neuroticism. Higher levels of rumination were also associated with greater severity and duration of current depressive episodes and greater severity of past depressive episodes even after controlling for neuroticism. Contrary to the sex differences hypothesis of the response styles theory, girls and boys did not differ in levels of rumination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined several theories of depression in a sample of middle adolescents. At Time 1, 367 ninth graders completed measures assessing depressogenic inferential styles, the tendency to ruminate in response to depressed mood, and depressive symptoms. Six weeks later, participants completed measures assessing negative events and depressive symptoms. In line with the hopelessness theory, a depressogenic weakest link interacted with negative events to predict increases in hopelessness depression symptoms but not in more general depressive symptoms. Further, providing partial support for the response styles theory, the tendency to ruminate in response to depressed mood predicted increases in hopelessness depression symptoms but not in more general depressive symptoms. Contrary to the integrative theory, the relationship between a depressogenic weakest link and increases in hopelessness depression symptoms following negative events was not moderated by a ruminative response style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]