Characterizing the Ruminative Process in Young Adolescents

Abstract

Rumination involves repeatedly and passively dwelling on negative feelings and brooding about their causes and consequences. Prior work has found that rumination predicts many forms of psychopathology including anxiety, binge eating, binge drinking, self-injury, and especially depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, & Lyubomirsky, 2008). In the present study, we attempt to characterize the ruminative process in real time in young adolescents, specifically by examining factors that predict rumination following an interpersonal stressor. A community sample of 105 youth ages 9 to 14 (70% girls; 66% Caucasian) completed questionnaires regarding depressive symptoms and trait rumination along with an assessment of selective attention using an emotional faces dot-probe task. Participants then underwent an interpersonal stressor and audio rumination induction in the laboratory during which time thoughts were sampled regularly and coded. Results indicate that negative self-referential thought is a common response to the stressor and is predicted by trait rumination scores. Although most participants were able to disengage from this type of thinking, 10.5% persisted through (i.e., ruminated) until the end of the study. These individuals were characterized by higher depressive symptoms and an attentional bias away from happy (relative to neutral) faces. Differences in attentional processes may characterize rumination in youth. Implications for the measurement of rumination as well as treatment are discussed.

Acknowledgments

Lori Hilt is now at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. Funding was provided by National Institute of Mental Health grant R01-MH061285 to SDP; LMH was supported by T32-MH018931-21. We thank Sarah Romens for development and advice on the dot-probe task and Brian Leitzke for help with data collection. We also thank Elvira Zobel, Barb Roeber, Natalie Walker, Maureen Kelly, Audrey Mohni, and Lei Kheng Goa for their assistance with the study. We appreciate the comments received from Susan Nolen-Hoeksema on an earlier draft.

Notes

Note: Exp (B) = exponentiation of the B coefficient, which can be interpreted as an odds ratio. CDI = Children's Depression Inventory.

¹Including the four participants who began engaging in negative self-relevant thought after the rumination induction (but not immediately after the stressor) in the persistent/state rumination group does not change the results.