Abstract
The goal of the current study was to examine the role of brooding rumination in children at risk for depression. We found that children of mothers with a history of major depression exhibited higher levels of brooding rumination than did children of mothers with no depression history. Examining potential mechanisms of this risk, we found no evidence for shared genetic influences (BDNF or 5-HTTLPR) or modeling of mothers’ rumination. However, we did find that children with a history of prior depressive disorders exhibited higher current levels of brooding rumination than children with no depression history. Importantly, children’s brooding predicted prospective onsets of new depressive episodes over a 20-month follow-up even when we statistically controlled for depressive symptom levels at the initial assessment, suggesting that the predictive effect of brooding rumination in children was not due simply to co-occurring depressive symptoms.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Children’s 5-HTTLPR and BDNF genotypes were also not significantly related to children’s lifetime depressive diagnoses or current depressive symptoms assessed at T1 nor did they predict depression onset during the follow-up
Though not significant, we should note that the relation between children’s brooding rumination and their lifetime anxiety disorders was in the opposite direction from what may have been expected, such that children with a history of anxiety disorders had somewhat lower levels of brooding rumination (M = 8.72) than children with no anxiety disorder history (M = 10.07).
Although we focus primarily on children’s levels of brooding rumination, we should also note that mothers’ levels of brooding rumination were also significantly related to their history of MDD, such that mothers with a history of MDD reported significantly higher levels of brooding rumination than mothers with no MDD history, F(1,98) = 24.36, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.20. Examining mothers with current MDD, past MDD, and no MDD separately, we found that each of the three groups differed significantly, F(2,97) = 17.42, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.26, with current MDD associated with the highest levels of brooding rumination (M = 14.41), followed by past MDD (M = 11.45), and then no MDD (M = 9.21). In contrast, mothers’ levels of brooding rumination were not significantly associated with their history of anxiety disorders, controlling for the influence of MDD history, F(2,97) = 2.72, p = 0.10, η p 2 = 0.03. We also examined potential links between brooding rumination and mothers’ BDNF and 5-HTTLPR genotypes. Although BDNF genotype was not significantly related to mothers’ levels of brooding rumination, F(1,97) = 1.90, p = 0.17, η p 2 = 0.02, brooding was significantly related to 5-HTTLPR genotype, F(2,96) = 3.50, p = 0.03, η p 2 = 0.07, with women carrying 2 copies of the 5-HTTLPR S or LG allele exhibiting significantly higher levels of brooding rumination (M = 11.82) than women carrying only 1 copy of these alleles (M = 10.48) or women homozygous for the LA allele (M = 9.68). This result, though consistent with other studies examining 5-HTTLPR and information-processing biases, should be interpreted with caution given that it was not replicated in the children, nor was it found in a previous sample of healthy adults (Beevers et al. 2009a).
References
Abela, J. R. Z., & Hankin, B. L. (2008). Cognitive vulnerability to depression in children and adolescents: A developmental psychopathology approach. In J. R. Z. Abela & B. L. Hankin (Eds.), Handbook of depression in children and adolescents (pp. 6–32). New York: Guilford.
Abela, J. R. Z., & Hankin, B. L. (2011). Rumination as a vulnerability factor to depression durign the transition from early to middle adolescence: a multiwave longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 259–271.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Angold, A. (1989). Structured assessments of psychopathology in children and adolescents. In C. Thompsen (Ed.), The instruments of psychiatric research (pp. 271–394). Chichester: Wiley.
Armey, M. F., Fresco, D. M., Moore, M. T., Mennin, D. S., Turk, C. L., Heimberg, R. G., et al. (2009). Brooding and pondering: isolating the active ingredients of depressive rumination with exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Assessment, 16, 315–327.
Beevers, C. G., Rohde, P., Stice, E., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2007). Recovery from major depressive disorder among female adolescents: a prospective test of the scar hypothesis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75, 888–900.
Beevers, C. G., Wells, T. T., & McGeary, J. E. (2009a). The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with rumination in healthy adults. Emotion, 9, 579–584.
Beevers, C. G., Wells, T. T., Ellis, A. J., & McGeary, J. E. (2009b). Association of the serotonin transporter gene promoter region (5-HTTLPR) polymorphism with biased attention for emotional stimuli. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 670–681.
Burwell, R. A., & Shirk, S. R. (2007). Subtypes of rumination in adolescence: associations between brooding, reflection, depressive symptoms, and coping. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36, 56–65.
Endicott, J., & Spitzer, R. A. (1978). A diagnostic interview: the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 837–844.
Freeman, B., Powell, J., Ball, D., Hill, L., Craig, I., & Plomin, R. (1997). DNA by mail: an inexpensive and noninvasive method for collecting DNA samples from widely dispersed populations. Behavior Genetics, 27, 251–257.
Gibb, B. E., Alloy, L. B., Walshaw, P. D., Comer, J. S., Shen, G. H. C., & Villari, A. G. (2006). Predictors of attributional style change in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 425–439.
Gibb, B. E., & Coles, M. E. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability-stress models of psychopathology: A developmental perspective. In B. L. Hankin & J. R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of psychopathology: a vulnerability-stress perspective (pp. 104–135). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gibb, B. E., Johnson, A. L., Benas, J. S., Uhrlass, D. J., Knopik, V. S., & McGeary, J. E. (2011). Children’s 5-HTTLPR genotype moderates the link between maternal criticism and attentional biases specifically for facial displays of anger. Cognition and Emotion.
Goodman, S. H. (2007). Depression in mothers. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 3, 107–135.
Goodman, S. H., & Gotlib, I. H. (1999). Risk for psychopathology in the children of depressed mothers: a development model for understanding mechanisms of transmission. Psychological Review, 106, 458–490.
Grassia, M., & Gibb, B. E. (2008). Rumination and prospective changes in depressive symptoms. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 27, 931–948.
Grassia, M., & Gibb, B. E. (2009). Rumination and lifetime history of suicide attempts. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 2, 400–406.
Hammen, C. (2009). Children of depressed parents. In I. H. Gotlib & C. Hammen (Eds.), Handbook of depression (2nd ed., pp. 275–297). New York: Guilford.
Hankin, B. L. (2008). Stability of cognitive vulnerabilities to depression: a short-term prospective multiwave study. Joural of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 324–333.
Hayden, E. P., Dougherty, L. R., Maloney, B., Olino, T. M., Sheikh, H., Durbin, C. E., et al. (2008). Early emerging cognitive vulnerability to depression and the serotonin transporter promoter region polymorphism. Journal of Affective Disorders, 107, 227–230.
Hilt, L. M., Sander, L. C., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Simen, A. A. (2007). The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism predicts rumiantion and depression differently in adolescent girls and their mothers. Neuroscience Letters, 429, 12–16.
Joormann, J., Dkane, M., & Gotlib, I. H. (2006). Adaptive and maladaptive components of rumination? Diagnostic specificity and relation to depressive biases. Behavior Therapy, 37, 269–280.
Juhasz, G., Dunham, J. S., McKie, S., Thomas, E., Downey, D., Chase, D., et al. (2011). The CREB1-BDNF-NTRK2 pathway in depression: multiple gene-cognition-environment interactions. Biological Psychiatry, 69, 762–771.
Kaufman, J., Birmaher, B., Brent, D., Rao, U., Flynn, C., Moreci, P., et al. (1997). Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children-present and lifetime version (K-SADS-PL): initial reliability and validity data. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 980–988.
Kovacs, M. (1981). Rating scales to assess depression in school-aged children. Acta Paedopsychiatrica, 46, 305–315.
Kovacs, M. (1985). The children’s depression inventory. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 21, 995–998.
Kuyken, W., Watkins, E., Holden, E., & Cook, W. (2006). Rumination in adolescents at risk for depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 96, 39–47.
Lench, N. (1988). Simple non-invasive method to obtain DNA for gene analysis. Lancet, 331, 1356–1358.
Lesch, K., Bengel, D., Heils, A., Sabol, S. Z., Greenberg, B. D., Petri, S., et al. (1996). Association of anxiety-related traits with a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene regulatory region. Science, 274, 1527–1531.
Little, R. J. A., & Rubin, D. B. (1987). Statistical analysis with missing data. New York: Wiley.
Lewinsohn, P. M., Steinmertz, J., Larson, D., & Franklin, J. (1981). Depression related cognitions: antecedents or consequences? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90, 213–219.
Lopez, C. M., Driscoll, K. A., & Kistner, J. A. (2009). Sex differences and response styles: subtypes of rumination and associations with depressive symptoms. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 38, 27–35.
Meulenbelt, I., Droog, S., Trommelen, G. J., Boomsma, D. I., & Slagboom, P. E. (1995). High-yield noninvasive human genomic DNA isolation method for genetic studies in geographically dispersed families and populations. American Journal of Human Genetics, 57, 1252–1254.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1991). Responses to depression and their effects on the duration of depressive episodes. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 569–582.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Girgus, J. S., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1986). Learned helplessness in children: a longitudinal study of depression, achievement, and explanatory style. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 435–442.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Girgus, J. S., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1992). Predictors and consequences of childhood depressive symptoms: a 5-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 405–422.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Stice, E., Wade, E., & Bohon, C. (2007). Reciprocal relations between rumination and bulimic, substance abuse, and depressive symptoms in female adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 198–207.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 400–424.
Papadakis, A. A., Prince, R. P., Jones, N. P., & Strauman, T. J. (2006). Self-regulation, rumination, and vulnerability to depression in adolescent girls. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 815–829.
Rood, L., Roelofs, J., Bögels, S. M., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schouten, E. (2009). The influence of emotion-foucsed rumination and distraction on depressive symptoms in non-clinical youth: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 29, 607–616.
Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147–177.
Schoofs, H., Hermans, D., & Raes, F. (2010). Brooding and reflection as subtypes of rumination: evidence from confirmatory factor analysis in nonclinical samples using the Dutch ruminative response scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 32, 609–617.
Smucker, M. R., Craighead, W. E., Craighead, L. W., & Green, B. J. (1986). Normative and reliability data for the children’s depression inventory. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 14, 25–39.
Spitz, E., Moutier, R., Reed, T., Busnel, M. C., Marchaland, C., Roubertoux, P. L., et al. (1996). Comparative diagnoses of twin zygosity by SSLP variant analysis, questionnaire, and dermatoglyphic analysis. Behavior Genetics, 26, 55–63.
Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: a psychometric analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 247–259.
Verstraeten, K., Vasey, M. W., Raes, F., & Bijttebier, P. (2010). Brooding and reflection as components of rumination in late childhood. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 367–372.
Watkins, E. R., Baeyens, C. B., & Read, R. (2009). Concreteness training reduces dysphoria: proof-of-principle for repeated cognitive bias modification in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 55–64.
Watkins, E. R., & Moberly, N. J. (2009). Concreteness training reduces dysphoria: a pilot proof-of-principle study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 48–53.
Wigg, K. G., Takhar, A., Ickowicz, A., Tannock, R., Kennedy, J. L., Pathare, T., et al. (2006). Gene for the serotonin transporter and ADHD: no association with two functional polymorphisms. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 141B, 566–570.
Zalsman, G., Huang, Y., Oquendo, M. A., Burke, A. K., Hu, X., Brent, D. A., et al. (2006). Association of a triallelic serotonin transporter gene promoter region (5-HTTLPR) polymorphism with stressful life events and severity of depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 1588–1593.
Ziegert, D. I., & Kistner, J. A. (2002). Response styles theory: downward extension to children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 325–334.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This project was supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grants HD048664 and HD057066 and by funding from the Center for Developmental Psychobiology, Binghamton University, awarded to B.E. Gibb, a Fahs-Beck Doctoral Dissertation Grant awarded to D.J. Uhrlass, as well as 1S10RR023457-01A1 and Shared equipment grants (ShEEP) from the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veteran Affairs awarded to J. E. McGeary. We would like to thank Sarah Crossett and Jessica Benas for their help in conducting assessments for this project.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gibb, B.E., Grassia, M., Stone, L.B. et al. Brooding Rumination and Risk for Depressive Disorders in Children of Depressed Mothers. J Abnorm Child Psychol 40, 317–326 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9554-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9554-y