Ruminative subtypes and coping responses: Active and passive pathways to depressive symptoms

Abstract

Individuals draw on a variety of cognitive strategies—some active, some passive—as a way of coping with stress and dysphoria. Previous research suggests that the impact of rumination—one such strategy—on depression depends on whether rumination takes the passive form of brooding versus the more active form of reflection. This study tests whether brooding and reflection explain the effects of passive versus active coping responses, respectively, on depressive symptoms. In an undergraduate sample (n=284), brooding partially mediated the relationship between passive coping and depressive symptoms, whereas reflection did not. Reflection moderated the relationship between active coping and symptoms, such that low active copers who were high in reflection endorsed more symptoms than those low in reflection. Brooding and reflection may operate within cognitive–behavioural response pathways characterised by an active/passive distinction. Whether reflection is maladaptive likely depends on the active nature of the surrounding coping response.

Keywords:

• Rumination
• Brooding
• Reflection
• Depression
• Coping

Acknowledgements

This work was funded, in part, by the Hunter College Gender Equity Project, NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award #0123609.

The authors thank Valerie Khait, Cary Chu, Dana Eiss, Shama Goklani, and Lisa Lerner for their assistance with data collection; Susan Nolen-Hoeksema and Katherine Surrence for comments on an early version of the manuscript; and Rebecca Huselid for comments on an earlier version of our statistical analyses.

Notes

¹Exploratory factor analysis of all items of the Brief COPE, with oblique rotation, showed that only items on the active coping and planning subscales loaded onto a first factor, at values between .62 and .71, and denial and behavioural disengagement subscale items onto a second factor, at values between .45 and .64. It should be noted that the denial and behavioural disengagement subscales were significantly and positively correlated, r(284)=.34, p<.01, as were the active coping and planning subscales, r(284)=.62, p<.01.