Developmental Origins of Rumination in Middle Childhood: The Roles of Early Temperament and Positive Parenting

Abstract

Rumination, a thinking style characterized by a repetitive inward focus on negative cognitions, has been linked to internalizing disorders, particularly depression. Moreover, research suggests that rumination may be a cognitive vulnerability that predisposes individuals to psychopathology. Surprisingly little is known, however, about the etiology and development of rumination. The present study examined the role of specific components of child temperamental negative emotionality (sadness, fear, anger) and effortful control (inhibition), as well as parenting behaviors during early childhood on the development of rumination in middle childhood. Early childhood (age 3) temperament and parenting behaviors were assessed observationally and rumination was self-reported in middle childhood (age 9) in a large community sample (N = 425; 47.1% female). Two significant interactions emerged. First, temperamental anger interacted with inhibitory control (IC) such that high anger and low IC predicted higher levels of rumination, whereas low anger and low IC predicted lower levels of rumination. Second, IC interacted with parenting such that children with low IC and positive parenting had lower levels of rumination. In contrast, children with high IC reported similar levels of rumination regardless of parenting quality. Overall, these findings highlight the interplay of early IC with temperamental anger and positive parenting in the development of ruminative tendencies in middle childhood.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Benjamin L. Hankin for helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article.

FUNDING

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health RO1 MH 069942 (Klein).

Notes

¹ Coders included undergraduate research assistants, study staff, and graduate students who completed extensive training and were unaware of other study variables. Coders were assigned to specific episodes and had to reach at least 80% agreement on all specific codes within the episode with a “master” rater before coding independently. To examine interrater reliability, videotapes of 35 children were independently coded by a second rater (only eight children were used to assess interrater reliability of Inhibitory Control because it uses simple count variables).

² To examine which aspects of parenting were driving the parenting and IC interaction, a regression model was conducted including covariates of cognitive ability, race, and depressive symptoms; components of parenting (PA, quality of relationship, support, NA, hostility); IC, and interactions for each of the parenting aspects with IC. Results showed that higher parent PA significantly predicted lower levels of rumination (β = –.11, p = .04). There was also a significant interaction between parent NA and IC (β = .30, p = .01). Children with high IC showed similar levels of rumination regardless of level of parent NA. On the other hand, children with low IC showed higher rumination at high levels of parent NA. These results suggest that parent PA and NA have the greatest unique effects on rumination.

³ According to the failure model, externalizing problems contribute to peer rejection and academic failures, which lead to increases in rumination and subsequent depression.

⁴ Although Hilt et al. (2012) examined the independent effects of self-reported overcontrolling parenting and negative-submissive family expressivity, the present study had a single dimension of parenting behaviors reflecting NA, PA, support, hostility, and the quality of the parent–child relationship, which were assessed observationally. Regarding EC, Hilt et al. (2012) utilized a task that may be more reflective of attentional modulation (i.e., staring at a pinwheel), whereas the tasks in the present study may be more reflective of behavioral inhibition (e.g., Tower of Patience).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health RO1 MH 069942 (Klein). We thank Benjamin L. Hankin for helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article.