Abstract
In addition to playing a role in the deterioration of depressed people's interpersonal environment, excessive reassurance-seeking may be implicated as a vulnerability factor for depression. If so, excessive reassurance-seeking should display relative specificity to depression versus other forms of psychopathology. Two studies of psychiatric inpatients (Study 1 on adults and Study 2 on children) tested this possibility. In Study 1 a Depressed group obtained higher reassurance-seeking scores than an Other Disorders group did. Similar findings were obtained in Study 2, such that depressed youth reported higher reassurance-seeking than nondepressed youth. Hence, these two studies of psychiatric inpatients provided reasonable support for the specificity of excessive reassurance-seeking to depression as compared to other forms of psychopathology.
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Joiner, T.E., Metalsky, G.I., Gencoz, F. et al. The Relative Specificity of Excessive Reassurance-Seeking to Depressive Symptoms and Diagnoses Among Clinical Samples of Adults and Youth. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 23, 35–41 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011039406970
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011039406970