Positive attributional style, life events and their effect on children's mood: Prospective study

Figures & data

Table I. Psychometric data

	Time 1				Time 2
Measure	M	SD	Min	Max	M	SD	Min	Max
CDI-S	2.76	3.20	0	15	1.82	2.56	0	13
No. negative life events					3.49	2.12	0	10
CASQ-Pos					19.78	2.28	14	24
No. positive events					43.10	13.66	2	70
Notes: CASQ-Pos = Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire, Revised–Positive Composite; CDI-S = Child Depression Inventory–Short Form; no. negative life events = Cambridge Life Development Measure; no. positive events = Positive Events Checklist.

Table II. Zero-order correlations among variables of interest

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. CDI-S T1	–	.58**	.31**	−.44**	−.35**	−.40**
2. CDI-S T2		–	.46**	−.54**	−.60**	−.48**
3. Negative life events T2			–	−.15	−.37**	−.05
4. CASQ-Pos T2				–	.41**	.49**
5. CASQ-Neg T2					–	.29**
6. Positive events T2						–
Notes: CASQ-Neg = Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire, Revised–Negative Composite; CASQ-Pos = Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire, Revised–Positive Composite; CDI-S = Child Depression Inventory–Short Form; negative life events = Cambridge Life Development Measure; positive events = Positive Events Checklist.
**p < .01 (two-tailed).

Figure 1. Predicted depressive symptoms as a function of life events and level of attributional style for positive events. (– –) Low positive attributional style; (––) high positive attributional style.

Table III. Prediction of depressive symptoms in children at T2: no. negative life events and level of positive attributional style for positive events

Predictor	R^2	R^2change	B	SE B	t	p
Step 1	.39	.39
CDI-S T1			.23	.07	3.40	.001
Step 2	.58	.19
Negative life events^a			.29	.08	3.40	.001
CASQ-Pos^a			−.35	.08	−4.20	.000
Step 3	.63	.05
Negative life events^a × CASQ-Pos^a			−.08	.03	−3.20	.002
Notes: CASQ-Pos. = Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire, Revised–Positive Composite; CDI-S T1 = Child Depression Inventory–Short Form at Time 1; negative life events = Cambridge Life Development Measure.
^aVariable centered.

Figure 2. Predicted depressive symptoms in children as a function of frequency of negative events and frequency of positive events. (– –) Low no. positive events; (––) high no. positive events.

Table IV. Prediction of depressive symptoms in children at T2: no. negative and positive life events

Predictor	R^2	R^2change	B	SE B	t	p
Step 1	.39	.39
CDI-S T1			.27	.07	3.60	.001
Step 2	.55	.16
Positive events^a			−.05	.01	−3.62	.001
Negative life events^a			.31	.09	3.47	.001
Step 3	.57	.02
Positive events^a × Negative life events^a			−<.01	<.01	−1.88	.064
Notes: CDI-S T1 = Child Depression Inventory–Short Form at Time 1; negative life events = Cambridge Life Development Measure; positive events = Positive Events Checklist.
^aVariable centered.

Figure 3. Predicted depressive symptoms as a function of frequency of positive events and level of positive attributional style for positive events. (– –) Low positive attributional style; (––) high positive attributional style.

Table V. Prediction of depressive symptoms in children at T2: no. positive life events and level of attributional style for positive life events

Predictor	R^2	R^2change	B	SE B	t	p
Step 1	.39	.39
CDI-S T1			.22	.08	2.80	<.01
Step 2	.52	.13
Positive Events^a			−.03	.02	−1.62	.109
CASQ-Pos^a			−.30	.10	−2.99	<.01
Step 3	.57	.05
Positive Events^a ×  CASQ-Pos^a			.02	<.01	2.94	<.01
Notes: CASQ-Pos. = Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire, Revised–Positive Composite; CDI-S T1 = Child Depression Inventory–Short Form at Time 1; positive events = Positive Events Checklist
^aVariable centered.

Table VI. Positive attributional style mediates relationship between no. positive events and later depressive symptoms: Test

Variable mediation chain	IV → MV	MV → DV	IV → DV	IV → DV(MV)	z score
(IV) Positive Events T2 → (MV) CASQ-Pos. T2 → (DV) CDI-S T2	.07***	−.30**	−.05**	.07	−2.29*
Notes: CASQ-Pos. = Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire, Revised–Positive Composite; CDI-S = Child Depression Inventory–Short Form at Time 2; DV = dependent variable; IV = independent variable; IV → DV (MV) = relationship between IV and DV after controlling for the effect of MV; MV = mediator variable; positive events = Positive Events Checklist.						*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001 (two-tailed).