Margot Bastin

Co-Brooding and Co-Reflection as Differential Predictors of Depressive Symptoms and Friendship Quality in Adolescents: Investigating the Moderating Role of Gender

Co-rumination has been shown advantageous for friendship quality, but disadvantageous for mental health. Recently, two components have been distinguished, with co-brooding predicting increases in depressive symptoms and co-reflection decreases. The current study aimed to replicate these findings and investigated whether both components also show differential relations with friendship quality. Gender was investigated as a moderator. Path analyses were used on data of 313 adolescents aged 9–17 (50.5% girls). Co-brooding was related to more concurrent and prospective depressive symptoms in girls. Co-reflection predicted less concurrent and prospective depressive symptoms in girls and higher concurrent positive friendship quality for boys and girls. This study underscores the value of studying co-rumination components and suggests that boys and girls in this context differ in their pathways towards depression.

Party Pooper or Life of the Party: Dampening and Enhancing of Positive Affect in a Peer Context

Dampening and enhancing responses to positive affect have been linked to depressive symptoms. The main aim of the present study was to examine such responses in an interpersonal peer context and to examine their relation with depressive symptoms. A community sample of 665 seventh-graders (52.0% girls, Mage = 12.7 years) took part in the study. Using a newly developed questionnaire, the Co-Dampening and Co-Enhancing Questionnaire (CoDEQ), a two-factor model distinguishing co-dampening and co-enhancing was validated. Relations with general depressive symptoms, anhedonic symptoms, and friendship quality were investigated. The direction of relations was examined over a 1-year interval using cross-lagged analyses. Cross-sectional results revealed that higher levels of co-dampening and lower levels of co-enhancing were associated with more depressive and anhedonic symptoms, while controlling for co-rumination levels. For anhedonic symptoms, this pattern also held over and above intrapersonal dampening and enhancing. Friendship quality was related to higher concurrent levels of co-enhancing and lower levels of co-dampening. The longitudinal results pointed towards a scar model, in that both depressive and anhedonic symptoms predicted relative increases in co-dampening over time; however, this did not hold in a model in which dampening and enhancing were included as control variables.

Helpful or Harmful? The Different Relationships Between Private Facebook Interactions and Adolescents’ Depressive Symptoms

ABSTRACT This study aims to provide greater insight into the role of 2 aspects of online peer interactions—perceived online social support and online corumination—in the short-term longitudinal relationship between private Facebook interactions and adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Special attention is given to gender differences. To test our hypotheses, a 2-wave panel study was set up (NTime1 = 1,840). Using structural equation modeling, results showed that private Facebook interactions were concurrently positively related to boys’ and girls’ online corumination and online corumination was positively associated with boys’ and girls’ depressive symptoms. In addition, results revealed that private Facebook interactions were predictive of relative increases in boys’ and girls’ perceptions of online social support over time (i.e., 6 months later). Perceptions of online social support in turn were predictive of relative decreases in girls’ depressive symptoms over time. The discussion focuses on the understanding and implications of these findings.

When Do Good Things Lift You Up? Dampening, Enhancing, and Uplifts in Relation To Depressive and Anhedonic Symptoms in Early Adolescence

Longitudinal studies examining the role of response styles to positive affect (i.e., dampening and enhancing) for depressive symptoms have yielded inconsistent results. We examined concurrent and prospective relations of dampening and enhancing with depressive and anhedonic symptoms, and whether these relations depend on the frequency of uplifts. Early adolescents (N = 674, 51.6% girls, Mage = 12.7 years, range 11.3–14.9) completed questionnaires three times (one-year intervals). Dampening interacted with daily uplifts predicting concurrent depressive symptoms. Dampening was unrelated to depressive and anhedonic symptoms one year later. High dampening and low enhancing predicted relative increases in anhedonia over two years. Relationships did not differ for girls and boys. Therapeutic interventions designed to promote adaptive responding to positive affect may, thus, reduce anhedonia in adolescence.