Depressive rumination and urgency have mutually enhancing relationships but both predict unique variance in future depression: A longitudinal study

Abstract

This study examined possible associations between rumination and impulsivity and if these variables make unique contributions to increasing depression. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted with an interval of four weeks between waves. University students in five Japanese universities completed the Japanese version of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition, Ruminative Responses Scale, and UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale on the three occasions (Time 1, n = 284, Mean age = 20.07 years, SD = 2.50, Age range 18–43 years; Time 2, n = 198; Time 3, n = 165). We conducted linear mixed model analyses to examine longitudinal relationships between variables with depression, rumination, and either UPPS-P subscale as fixed factors and the same variables assessed four weeks later as dependent variables. Results indicated that both negative and positive urgency predicted subsequent rumination, and rumination predicted subsequent negative but not positive urgency. Furthermore, rumination explained the unique variance in subsequent depression, even after controlling for the initial depression and negative or positive urgency score, and as did negative and positive urgency after controlling for initial depression and rumination. These findings suggest that rumination and urgency have a mutually enhancing relationship, although they make unique contributions to intensifying depression.

Keywords:

• depression
• rumination
• impulsivity
• urgency
• UPPS-P

Public Interest Statement

Results of this study indicated that two cognitive-behavioral patterns intensify depression in university students. One is rumination, which is a repetitive negative thought primarily focused on the past. The other is urgency which is a subset of impulsivity and represents the tendency to act rashly while experiencing negative or positive affect. Also, this study suggested that urgency increases ruminative thoughts, and rumination increases urgency when experiencing negative affect, which is not the case when experiencing positive affect. Therefore, it is plausible that interventions designed to decrease ruminative tendencies and urgency would be effective for preventing and alleviating depression in adults. Cognitive behavioral therapy is an established treatment to decrease rumination. However, few studies have examined procedures to decrease urgency. Therefore, more research is needed to develop treatments for urgency.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interest.

Notes

1. Predictive powers of brooding and reflection subscales for depression were reported by Hasegawa et al. (in press).

2. We did not conduct a confirmatory factor analysis to further examine the UPPS-P because this study had a relatively small sample size. We discuss this limitation later.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Akira Hasegawa

Akira Hasegawa is Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Relations at Tokai Gakuin University in Japan. His primary research interests lie in the field of depression, and its vulnerability and maintenance factors. Especially, his current research is focused on processes that perpetuate depressive rumination. He has conducted collaborative studies on depression and rumination with his graduate students, and with colleagues in different institutes in Japan. This article is one report of a project investigating psychological factors that intensify depression, which is conducted in collaboration with Yoshihiko Kunisato, Hiroshi Morimoto, Haruki Nishimura, and Yuko Matsuda.