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Objectives: Swann's self‐verification theory proposes that negative feedback seeking (NFS)—the solicitation of negative feedback from others that confirms one's self‐views—works in a negative cycle to maintain and exacerbate depression in the face of interpersonal stress. We propose a cognitive‐interpersonal integration account of NFS such that this maladaptive behavior prospectively predicts depression only among those with a trait tendency to ruminate on the causes and consequences of depressed mood and stress. Method: Participants included 91 young adults who were over‐sampled for a lifetime history of a unipolar depressive disorder (age 17–33; 69% women; 67% lifetime depressive disorder). At baseline, participants completed a structured diagnostic interview and self‐report measures of NFS, rumination, and depression symptoms. In addition, participants engaged in an interpersonal rejection task (the Yale Interpersonal Stressor) followed by a behavioral measure of NFS. At a 3‐month follow‐up, depression symptoms were again assessed by self‐report and exposure to stressful interpersonal life events in the intervening period were assessed with a rigorous contextual interview and independent rating system. Results: Controlling for baseline depression severity, greater self‐reported, and behaviorally assessed NFS predicted greater follow‐up depression severity, but only among those with higher trait tendency to ruminate. For self‐reported NFS, this association was further moderated by level of interpersonal, but not noninterpersonal, life events experienced over follow‐up. Conclusion: These findings suggest that rumination may represent a modifiable intervention target that could break the vicious interpersonal cycle of depression and, thus, mitigate the depressogenic effects of NFS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study provided a novel investigation of relations among particular types of childhood maltreatment (emotional vs. physical vs. sexual maltreatment), specific cognitive schema themes and the generation of dependent versus independent life events. Participants included 227 adolescents and emerging adults (74% female; aged 12–29) in a current episode of a unipolar depressive disorder drawn from three archival cross‐sectional studies. Childhood maltreatment and life events from the past 6 months were assessed using detailed contextual interviews with independent, standardized ratings. Emotional maltreatment was uniquely associated with schema themes of emotional deprivation and subjugation, and sexual maltreatment was uniquely associated with schema themes of abandonment, vulnerability and dependence/incompetence. Further, subjugation and abandonment cross‐sectionally mediated the relations of emotional and sexual maltreatment, respectively, to greater dependent, but not independent, life events. Physical maltreatment was not associated with cognitive schemas or recent life events after accounting for its overlap with emotional and sexual maltreatment. Results suggest targets for cognitive intervention that may improve outcomes for youth with specific histories of emotional and sexual maltreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to stressful life events and individual differences in the personality trait neuroticism are important risk factors that interact to predict major depressive disorder (MDD). Less is known about their effect on treatment response in depression. Here, we examine whether stressful life events experienced prior to and during treatment interact with neuroticism to predict response to 16‐week pharmacotherapy for MDD. Participants included 159 outpatients with MDD who were initially treated with 8 weeks of escitalopram. Those who responded to the initial treatment continued on escitalopram monotherapy, whereas non‐responders received 8 weeks of adjunctive aripiprazole. Personality was assessed using the NEO‐Five Factor Inventory, and stressful life events were assessed using the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule, a rigorous contextual interview that includes independent ratings of threatening life events. High baseline neuroticism was associated with a lower likelihood of response when patients experienced one or more negative life events before treatment. Secondary analyses indicated that this effect was specific to neuroticism, and not better accounted for by its self‐criticism or negative affect facets. Our results suggest that assessing personality and stressful life events at baseline can help clinicians assess which patients will respond to antidepressant therapy and which may need treatment augmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children of depressed mothers show substantial social impairment, which increases their risk for developing depression. Theory of mind understanding forms the basis of social functioning, and is impaired in children of currently depressed mothers. Models of risk emphasize that a history of any maternal depression confers risk to later psychopathology. Therefore, we tested a novel model of the impact of lifetime maternal depression on children's false belief understanding that accounts for three primary factors that scaffold this understanding: maternal mental state talk, and children's executive functioning and language abilities. Children aged 41–48 months with a maternal lifetime history of major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 19) performed significantly more poorly on the false belief battery compared to those without (n = 44). Further, lower levels of mental state talk, child executive functioning, and child language ability were significantly associated with poorer false belief scores. However, the relation between maternal MDD and children's false belief performance was not mediated by any of these factors. These results indicate that maternal depression predicts poorer false belief understanding independently of other crucial scaffolding variables, and may be a social cognitive mechanism underlying the intergenerational transmission of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study tested whether core beliefs with themes of abandonment and rejection moderated the link between trait and behavioral excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) and interpersonal rejection. Method Participants were 118 women with high ( n = 43; mean [ M]age = 18.58, standard deviation [ SD]age = 1.24) and low ( n = 75; Mage = 18.58, SDage = 1.24) levels of depression symptoms and their male romantic partners. Couples reported their depression, ERS, abandonment/rejection cognitions, and relationship quality. We also coded women's reassurance-seeking behavior during an audiotaped discussion task. Results Among women with high levels of depression symptoms and low levels of abandonment/rejection core beliefs, behavioral ERS was associated with lower partner-reported relationship quality. Self-reported ERS was significantly associated with partner relationship quality, but the effect was not moderated by depression or core beliefs. Conclusions ERS is a potent predictor of stress and subsequent depression. Our findings underscore the need to better understand factors (e.g., cognitions, partner characteristics) that may determine whether ERS behaviors beget interpersonal stress and rejection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood maltreatment has been shown to have a stronger etiological relation to depression onset in adolescence than in adulthood. We propose that a maltreatment history may more strongly sensitize individuals to the depressogenic effects of proximal stressful life events in adolescence compared to adulthood. In an amalgamated sample of 176 unipolar depressed adolescents (age 12-17) and emerging adults (age 18-29), we examined the moderating role of age group on the relation of childhood maltreatment to sensitization to stressors that occurred just prior to episode onset. Among adolescents, but not among adults, those with a maltreatment history reported a lower severity level of life events prior to episode onset than reported by those without such a history. Further, this relation was specific to emotional abuse, and not physical or sexual abuse. We suggest that the pathological mechanisms associated with translating childhood maltreatment to depression may differ across developmental periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]