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Response styles theory promotes rumination as a central cognitive construct driving negative mood and depression, and past research suggests that at least part of the mechanism driving rumination's depressogenic effect is through inhibiting the individual's ability to shift attentional focus away from negative environmental stimuli. In the current study, we hypothesized that high trait rumination would be associated with impaired recovery of the body's biological response to psychological stress. In a community sample of depressed (n = 31) and non-depressed (n = 33) adolescents we assessed rumination and the more adaptive trait of distraction and problem-solving with the Children's Response Styles Questionnaire (CRSQ; Abela 2000), and diagnostic status was confirmed using the Child and Adolescent Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS; Kaufman et al. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 36:980-988, 1997). Participants completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum et al. Neuropsychobiology 28:76-81, 1993), and the focus of our analyses was the change in salivary cortisol concentration between peak cortisol output (25 min post-stressor) and a sample taken during the "Recovery" period 65 minutes post-stressor. Consistent with the predictions of response style theory, among the depressed adolescents only, high trait rumination was associated with delayed post-stressor cortisol recovery, whereas high trait distraction and problem-solving was associated with more rapid recovery. In contrast, response styles were not associated with cortisol recovery in the non-depressed group. These findings implicate impaired post-stress cortisol recovery as a potential mechanism underlying the pathological effect of rumination on the development and maintenance of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

The support deterioration model of depression states that stress deteriorates the perceived availability and/or effectiveness of social support, which then leads to depression. The present study examined this model in adolescent depression following parent-perpetrated maltreatment and peer-perpetrated bullying, as assessed by a rigorous contextual interview and rating system. In 101 depressed and nondepressed community adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 (M = 15.51, SD = 1.27), peer bullying and father-perpetrated maltreatment were associated with lower perceptions of tangible support and of belonging in a social network. These forms of support mediated the association of bullying and father-perpetrated maltreatment with greater depression severity. In contrast, mother-perpetrated maltreatment was associated with higher perceptions of tangible support.

The purpose of the present study was to uncover patterns in the generation of life events from symptom profiles and specific depression symptoms in an effort to obtain a fine-grained understanding of the stress-generation phenomenon. A community sample of 161 adolescents completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (A. T. Beck, 1996) at Time 1, and then 88 returned 1 year later for an assessment of life events using a rigorous contextual interview and rating system. Consistent with hypotheses, and controlling for baseline stress, cognitive-affective symptoms of depression prospectively predicted higher levels of dependent interpersonal life events. In contrast, somatic symptoms prospectively predicted higher levels of independent life events. Further examination of the types of events generated by specific symptoms suggests that different mechanisms may drive specific patterns of symptom-event generation and suggests that broadening the definition of independence may be necessary to capture the full context of event generation.