Dorothy J. Uhrlass

Brooding Rumination and Risk for Depressive Disorders in Children of Depressed Mothers

The goal of the current study was to examine the role of brooding rumination in children at risk for depression. We found that children of mothers with a history of major depression exhibited higher levels of brooding rumination than did children of mothers with no depression history. Examining potential mechanisms of this risk, we found no evidence for shared genetic influences (BDNF or 5-HTTLPR) or modeling of mothers’ rumination. However, we did find that children with a history of prior depressive disorders exhibited higher current levels of brooding rumination than children with no depression history. Importantly, children’s brooding predicted prospective onsets of new depressive episodes over a 20-month follow-up even when we statistically controlled for depressive symptom levels at the initial assessment, suggesting that the predictive effect of brooding rumination in children was not due simply to co-occurring depressive symptoms.

Co-rumination and Lifetime History of Depressive Disorders in Children

Co-rumination, the social process of frequently discussing and rehashing problems with peers, is hypothesized to increase risk for depression, particularly for girls. Although there is growing evidence for a relation between co-rumination and depressive symptoms in youth, it remains unclear whether these results generalize to diagnosable episodes of depression. Using a retrospective behavioral high-risk design with 81 children aged 9 to 14 years, we tested the hypothesis that children currently exhibiting high levels of co-rumination would be more likely to have a history of depressive diagnoses than children with low levels of co-rumination. The results supported this hypothesis. In addition, the link between co-rumination and history of depressive diagnoses was maintained even when we excluded children with current diagnoses and statistically controlled for childrens current depressive symptoms, suggesting that the relation is not due simply to current levels of depression.

Children's 5-HTTLPR genotype moderates the link between maternal criticism and attentional biases specifically for facial displays of anger

Theorists have proposed that negative experiences in childhood may contribute to the development of experience-specific information-processing biases, including attentional biases. There are also clear genetic influences on cognitive processes, with evidence that polymorphisms in specific candidate genes may moderate the impact of environmental stress on attentional biases (e.g., a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene; 5-HTTLPR). In the current study, we tested a gene×environment (G×E) model of risk for attentional biases. We hypothesised that children whose mothers exhibit high levels of expressed emotion criticism (EE-Crit) would display attentional biases specifically for angry, but not happy or sad, faces, and that this link would be stronger among children carrying one or two copies of the 5-HTTLPR short allele than among those homozygous for the long allele. Results generally supported these hypotheses, though we found that carriers of the 5-HTTLPR short allele who also had a critical mother exhibited attentional avoidance of angry faces rather than preferential attention.

Expressed Emotion-Criticism and Risk of Depression Onset in Children

The primary goal of the current study was to examine the impact of maternal criticism (expressed emotion-criticism; EE-Crit) on the prospective development of depressive episodes in children. In addition to examining baseline levels of EE-Crit, we also sought to determine whether distinct subgroups (latent classes) of mothers could be identified based on the levels of EE-Crit they exhibited over a multiwave assessment and whether that latent class membership would predict depression onset in children. Finally, we examined whether EE-Crit and maternal depression would independently predict childrens depression risk or whether EE-Crit would moderate the link between maternal depression and childrens depression onset. Children of mothers with or without a history of major depression (N = 100) were assessed 5 times over 20 months. Children completed the Childrens Depression Inventory and mothers completed the Five Minute Speech Sample and the Beck Depression Inventory at the baseline assessment, and at 2-, 4-, and 6-month follow-up assessments. Children and mothers completed diagnostic interviews assessing childrens onsets of depressive episodes at the 20-month follow-up. Latent class analysis of the 4 waves of EE-Crit assessments revealed two distinct groups, exhibiting relatively lower versus higher levels of EE-Crit across the first 6 months of follow-up. EE-Crit latent class membership predicted childrens depression onset over the subsequent 14 months. This finding was maintained after controlling for mothers and childrens depressive symptoms during the initial 6 months of follow-up. Finally, maternal depression did not moderate the link between EE-Crit and childhood depression onset. Continued exposure to maternal criticism appears to be an important risk factor for depression in children, risk that is at least partially independent of the risk conveyed by maternal depression. These results highlight the importance of a modifiable risk factor for depression—repeated exposure to maternal criticism.

Body dissatisfaction and weight-related teasing: A model of cognitive vulnerability to depression among women

Although a number of studies have linked body dissatisfaction to depressive symptoms, few have done so within the framework of a vulnerability-stress model. We hypothesized that womens levels of body dissatisfaction would interact with recent experiences of vulnerability-congruent negative life events (i.e., weight-related teasing) to predict prospective changes in depressive symptoms. Consistent with these hypotheses, experiences of weight-related teasing were more strongly related to depressive symptom increases among women with high, compared to low, levels of body dissatisfaction. These results support the hypothesis that body dissatisfaction moderates the impact of weight-related teasing on depressive symptom changes.

Negative Life Events, Self-Perceived Competence, and Depressive Symptoms in Young Adults

Despite consistent support for Cole’s (1990, 1991) competency-based model of depression in children and adolescents, no studies have examined this model in adult samples and few have focused on congruence between domains of self-perceived competence and specific forms of negative life events. Addressing this gap in the current cross-sectional study, we found that forms of self-perceived competence may both moderate and partially mediate the link between negative events and young adults’ current depressive symptoms. Specifically, there was evidence for both the partial mediating and moderating roles of perceived global self-worth and self-perceived scholastic competence. In contrast, perceived social acceptance and negative social events appeared to be independent correlates of depressive symptoms.