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There has been extensive discussion about gender gaps in representation and career advancement in the sciences. However, psychological science itself has yet to be the focus of discussion or systematic review, despite our field's investment in questions of equity, status, well-being, gender bias, and gender disparities. In the present article, we consider 10 topics relevant for women's career advancement in psychological science. We focus on issues that have been the subject of empirical study, discuss relevant evidence within and outside of psychological science, and draw on established psychological theory and social-science research to begin to chart a path forward. We hope that better understanding of these issues within the field will shed light on areas of existing gender gaps in the discipline and areas where positive change has happened, and spark conversation within our field about how to create lasting change to mitigate remaining gender differences in psychological science.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the academic work environment. Studies have documented cross-sectional associations between COVID-related stress and mental health symptoms in university faculty and staff. However, longitudinal studies that can establish temporal associations are needed. Further, it is important to determine if relations to mental health symptoms are driven by worries about COVID-19 (i.e., perceptions of stress) or actual impacts of COVID-19 across domains of health, job, and relationships. The present study included 100 faculty and 265 staff at a medium-sized Canadian University who completed an adapted version of the electronic U-Flourish well-being survey at two time points (October, 2020 and March, 2021). Cross-lagged panel modeling provided evidence that levels of COVID-19 worries and COVID-19 impacts at baseline significantly positively predicted follow-up levels of anxiety over and above baseline levels. Further, baseline levels of anxiety were positively associated with follow-up levels of COVID-19 worries, but not with follow-up COVID-19 impacts. In contrast, none of the cross-lagged associations with depressive symptoms were significant. We suggest from these results that post-COVID-19 mental health recovery can be promoted by academic leadership in two main ways. First, reducing the impact of COVID-19 on anxiety could be achieved through strategies that enhance individuals' sense of control and predictability in their environment, including clear, consistent, and consolidated communication. Second, reducing worry about COVID-19 for faculty and staff with preexisting mental health symptoms might be achieved by broadening access to mental health support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Studies of clinical populations that combine MRI data generated at multiple sites are increasingly common. The Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CAN-BIND; www.canbind.ca) is a national depression research program that includes multimodal neuroimaging collected at several sites across Canada. The purpose of the current paper is to provide detailed information on the imaging protocols used in a number of CAN-BIND studies. The CAN-BIND program implemented a series of platform-specific MRI protocols, including a suite of prescribed structural and functional MRI sequences supported by real-time monitoring for adherence and quality control. The imaging data are retained in an established informatics and databasing platform. Approximately 1300 participants are being recruited, including almost 1000 with depression. These include participants treated with antidepressant medications, transcranial magnetic stimulation, cognitive behavioural therapy and cognitive remediation therapy. Our ability to analyze the large number of imaging variables available may be limited by the sample size of the substudies. The CAN-BIND program includes a multimodal imaging database supported by extensive clinical, demographic, neuropsychological and biological data from people with major depression. It is a resource for Canadian investigators who are interested in understanding whether aspects of neuroimaging--alone or in combination with other variables--can predict the outcomes of various treatment modalities., Introduction Treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) is evidence-based, but treatment selection is not personalized to the features of an individual's illness. (1) The discovery of biomarkers --or predictors--of treatment [...]

Objective: A substantial number of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not respond to treatment, and recurrence rates remain high. The purpose of this study was to examine a history of severe childhood abuse as a moderator of response following a 16-week acute treatment trial, and of recurrence over a 12-month follow-up. Method: Participants included 203 adult outpatients with MDD (129 women; age 18-60). The design was a 16-week single-center randomized, open label trial of interpersonal psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or antidepressant medication, with a 12-month naturalistic follow-up, conducted at a university psychiatry center in Canada. The main outcome measure was Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores at treatment end point. Childhood maltreatment was assessed at the completion of treatment using an interview-based contextual measure of childhood physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Multiple imputation was adopted to estimate missing values. Results: Patients with severe maltreatment were significantly less likely to respond to interpersonal psychotherapy than to cognitive-behavioral therapy or medication (OR = 3.61), whereas no differences among treatments were found in those with no history of maltreatment (ORs less than 1.50). Furthermore, maltreatment significantly predicted a shorter time to recurrence over follow-up across treatment conditions (OR = 3.04). These findings were replicated in the sample with complete case data. Conclusions: Patients with a history of childhood abuse may benefit more from antidepressant medication or cognitive-behavioral therapy than from interpersonal psychotherapy. However, these patients remain vulnerable to recurrence regardless of treatment modality. (Contains 3 footnotes, 2 figures and 2 tables.)

Theory and research on major depression have increasingly assumed a recurrent and chronic disease model. Yet not all people who become depressed suffer recurrences, suggesting that depression is also an acute, time-limited condition. However, few if any risk indicators are available to forecast which of the initially depressed will or will not recur. This prognostic impasse may be a result of problems in conceptualizing the nature of recurrence in depression. In the current paper we first provide a conceptual analysis of the assumptions and theoretical systems that presently structure thinking on recurrence. This analysis reveals key concerns that have distorted views about the long-term course of depression. Second, as a consequence of these theoretical problems we suggest that investigative attention has been biased toward recurrent forms of depression and away from acute, time-limited conditions. Third, an analysis of how these theoretical problems have influenced research practices reveals that an essential comparison group has been omitted from research on recurrence: people with a single lifetime episode of depression. We suggest that this startling omission may explain why so few predictors of recurrence have as yet been found. Finally, we examine the reasons for this oversight, document the validity of depression as an acute, time-limited disorder, and provide suggestions for future research with the goal of discovering early risk indicators for recurrent depression. (Contains 4 figures, 2 tables and 11 footnotes.)

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. (Contains 3 tables, 2 figures and 6 footnotes.)

The current study examined whether the personality traits of self-criticism or dependency moderated the effect of stressful life events on treatment response. Depressed outpatients (N = 113) were randomized to 16 weeks of cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, or antidepressant medication (ADM). Stressful life events were assessed with the Bedford College Life Events and Difficulties Schedule. Severe events reported during or immediately prior to treatment predicted poor response in the ADM condition but not in the psychotherapy conditions. In contrast, nonsevere life events experienced prior to onset predicted superior response to treatment. Further, self-criticism moderated the relation of severe life events to outcome across conditions, such that in the presence of severe stress those high in self-criticism were less likely to respond to treatment than were those low in self-criticism. (Contains 3 tables, 2 figures and 10 footnotes.)

The present study examined the role of childhood abuse and neglect and depression recurrence in moderating the generation of stressful life events in adolescent depression. Maltreatment history and stressful life events were assessed using two rigorous contextual interviews and rating systems. In a sample of 59 community depressed adolescents we found significantly higher rates of interpersonal events in the 3-month period immediately following depression episode onset versus the 3-month period immediately preceding onset in adolescents with a history of childhood maltreatment. By contrast, rates of events remained constant over a matched period in a control group of non-maltreated adolescents. Furthermore, the generation of interpersonal events only held among those on a first onset of depression. These results suggest that a history of childhood abuse and neglect exacerbates the psychosocial dysfunction associated with the onset of depression, particularly in the very first episode.

Major depression is frequently characterized by recurrent episodes over the life course. First lifetime episodes of depression, however, are typically more strongly associated with major life stress than are successive recurrences. A key theoretical issue involves how the role of major life stress changes from an initial episode over subsequent recurrences. The primary conceptual framework for research on life stress and recurrence of depression is the "kindling" hypothesis (R. M. Post, 1992). Despite the strengths of the kindling hypothesis, a review of the research literature reveals inconsistencies and confusion about life stress and its implications for the recurrence of depression. Adopting a life stress perspective, the authors introduce 3 major themes that resolve the inconsistencies in the current literature. They integrate these themes and extrapolate the ideas with available data to develop a preliminary framework for evaluating competing explanatory models and to guide research on life stress and the recurrence of depression.

Childhood maltreatment increases risk for sexual and physical revictimization in adulthood. The goal of the current study was to examine whether this risk is associated with specific maltreatment types (i.e., sexual vs. physical vs. emotional maltreatment vs. neglect) and perpetrators (i.e., mother vs. father). Participants included 720 adult women from North America and the United Kingdom, recruited through the online platform Prolific Academic. The severity of childhood maltreatment and adult physical and sexual victimization were assessed in two separate sessions through self-report questionnaires. All maltreatment types were modeled together to account for their co-occurrence. Greater severity of sexual maltreatment was significantly and independently associated with greater risk for sexual, physical, and sexual + physical revictimization. Further, in the full sample, risk of revictimization was predicted by greater severity of father-perpetrated emotional and physical maltreatment. In contrast, in subgroup analyses focusing on plurisexual (i.e., bi/pansexual) women, risk of revictimization was predicted by greater severity of mother-perpetrated emotional and physical maltreatment. These results suggest that girls with sexual and emotional maltreatment histories are at highest risk for revictimization. Future research identifying the biological, psychological, and social sequelae of these specific exposures may enable the development of specific intervention programs that have the potential for maximum efficacy in preventing further violence against women most at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]