Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Improvements In Depressive Symptoms Following A Brief Relationship Intervention, Erica A. Mitchell, Patricia N.E. Roberson, Michaela Dipillo, James V. Cordova, Kristina Coop Gordon

Psychology

In the United States, 21 million adults are diagnosed with depression. Couple therapy effectively treats depression, however, couples encounter access barriers. The Relationship Checkup is an assessment and feedback intervention delivered in participants' homes. The current study examines changes in relationship satisfaction and depressive symptoms, and moderators and mechanisms of change in a community sample (N = 85 couples). Changes in depressive symptoms and satisfaction, and the association between changes in satisfaction and depressive symptoms were examined with multilevel modeling. Depressive symptoms (Cohen's d = 0.36) and satisfaction (d = 1.43) improved from baseline to 1-month follow-up, with greater declines …

Rates Of Recent Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Indigenous Children, Emily A. Waterman, Katie Edwards, Natira Mullet, Ramona Herrington, Skyler Hopfauf, Preciouse Trujillo, Naomi Even-Aberle, Lorey Wheeler

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

The current paper describes rates of recent (past six months) adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and examines the association of ACEs with cultural connection and depressive symptoms among Indigenous children aged 10 to 14 (N = 177; mean age = 11.8; 48.3% boys; 44.3% girls; 7.4% another gender identity). Children completed baseline surveys as part of a larger evaluation of a culturally grounded, strengths-focused, family-based program to prevent ACEs. Surveys included an inclusive measure of ACEs developed for the current study, an adapted measure of connection to culture, and the Children’s Depression Screener. Results for ACEs indicated that 18.6% of …

A Critical Examination Of The Effectiveness Of Gratitude Intervention On Well-Being Outcomes: A Within-Person Experimental Daily Diary Approach, Andree Hartanto, Manmeet Kaur, Kasturiratna Tennakoon Appuhamillage Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Frosch Yi Xuan Quek

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Given the rise in the global prevalence of stress and depressive symptoms, there is an increasing need to identify promising interventions that promote well-being. One potential intervention that has been widely discussed in the literature on improving well-being is the practice of gratitude. However, findings on its effectiveness have been marred by inconsistency and publication bias. Building upon past studies, the current study aims to revisit the effect of a gratitude contemplation intervention on multiple well-being outcomes by using a within-person experimental design with a daily diary approach. Multilevel modeling showed that the gratitude contemplation intervention had a significant within-person …

Self-Referent Pronouns, Self-Focus, And Depressive Symptoms In Adolescence, Olivia F. Petersen

Honors College

Youth with elevated depressive symptoms tend to engage in self-focusing behaviors, such as rumination and conversational self-focus. Past adult research also suggests that these self-focusing behaviors relate to depressive symptoms and may further be related to behavioral, implicit self-referent word use. Specifically, adults with higher depressive symptoms typically use more self-referent pronouns (e.g., ‘I,’ ‘me,’ ‘my’). The current adolescent study (N = 186, M = 15.68 years) utilized Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2015) software to test whether depressive symptoms, rumination, and conversational self-focus related to self-referent pronoun use during an observational task. Results indicated that …

Emotion Regulation Deficits And Depression-Related Maladaptive Interpersonal Behaviours, Eliot Fearey, Jesse Evans, Rebecca A. Schwartz-Mette

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Coyne’s interpersonal theory of depression posits that those with depressive symptoms engage in maladaptive interpersonal behaviours that, although intended to assuage distress, push away social supports and increase depressive symptoms (Coyne, 1976). Excessive reassurance seeking, negative feedback seeking, and conversational self-focus are three behaviours implicated in Coyne’s theory, yet their correlates- apart from depressive symptoms- are poorly understood. The current study considered the potential role of intrapersonal emotion regulation deficits as an additional vulnerability factor for these behaviours. Mediation models further tested whether linkages between emotion regulation deficits and maladaptive interpersonal behaviours helped to explain short-term increases in depressive symptoms, …

Effects Of Parenting By Lying In Childhood On Adult Lying, Internalizing Behaviors, And Relationship Quality, Bailey Dodd, Esther K. Malm

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Parenting by lying is a phenomenon in which parents lie to their children, usually for a positive goal, and has been the subject of new parenting research. This study tested the associations between parenting by lying in childhood, lying to parents in young adulthood, and parent–child relationship quality. Secondly, we examined the mechanisms through which these constructs were all related to internalizing behaviors in young adulthood, specifically—stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Young adult participants between the ages of 18 and 24 (N = 206) responded to questions about parenting strategies experienced in childhood, their current adult functioning, lying to parents, …

Air Pollution And The Dynamic Association Between Depressive Symptoms And Memory In Oldest-Old Women, Andrew J. Petkus, Diana Younan, Xinhui Wang, Daniel P. Beavers, Mark A. Espeland, Margaret Gatz, Tara Gruenewald, Joel D. Kaufman, Helena C. Chui, Joann E. Manson, Susan M. Resnick, Gregory A. Wellenius, Eric A. Whitsel, Keith Widaman, Jiu-Chiuan Chen

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

Exposure to air pollution may contribute to both increasing depressive symptoms and decreasing episodic memory in older adulthood, but few studies have examined this hypothesis in a longitudinal context. Accordingly, we examined the association between air pollution and changes in depressive symptoms (DS) and episodic memory (EM) and their interrelationship in oldest-old (aged 80 and older) women.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort data from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study-Epidemiology of Cognitive Health Outcomes.

SETTING

Geographically diverse community-dwelling population.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 1,583 dementia-free women aged 80 and older.

MEASUREMENTS

Women completed up to six annual memory assessments (latent composite …

A Dyadic Analysis Of Depressive Symptoms And Harsh And Rejecting Parenting In Filipino Mothers And Fathers, Rosanne M. Jocson

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

This study examines within-person and cross-person relations between depressive symptoms, harsh parenting, and parental rejection in low-income Filipino mothers and fathers of adolescents using an actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). Mother and father dyads (N = 81, Mage = 43.48, SD = 8.66) recruited from urban neighborhoods in the Philippines completed orally administered questionnaires on depressive symptoms, harsh parenting, and rejection. Results showed that mothers' scores and fathers' scores on depressive symptoms did not significantly differ and that mothers scored significantly higher than fathers on harsh parenting and rejection. Dyadic analyses using the APIM showed that the actor effect of depressive …

Adolescent Depressive Symptoms, Co-Rumination, And Friendship: A Longitudinal, Observational Study, Raegan Harrington

Honors College

Depressive symptoms and positive friendship quality are typically inversely correlated across numerous past studies, with most studies involving only two time points. At the same time, co-rumination (Rose, 2002), the mutually encouraged, speculative, repetitive, and negatively focused discussion of problems between friends, has been linked to increased depressive symptoms and increased friendship quality concurrently and over time (Calmes & Roberts, 2008; Rose et al., 2007, 2014). Yet unclear is how co-rumination impacts associations of depressive symptoms and friendship quality over time and the nature of these relations over more than two time points. Additionally, understudied are observations of co-rumination, with …

Self-Continuity Moderates The Association Between Sexual-Minority Status Based Discrimination And Depressive Symptoms, Holly E. Recchia, Jonathan Santo, Alexa Martin-Storey

Psychology Faculty Publications

Self-continuity, or how an individual understands their sense of self as persisting from past to present and present to future, is an important aspect of the self-concept that is linked to mental health outcomes. This self-concept construct may be particularly pertinent for sexual minority populations, as living in a heterosexist environment may prove detrimental for the development of self-continuity. The current study examined self-continuity among sexual minority and heterosexual community college and university students (N = 292). Compared to their heterosexual peers, sexual minority participants reported lower levels of self-continuity. Self-continuity moderated the associations between victimization due to gender nonconformity …

A Longitudinal Examination Of Peer Victimization On Depressive Symptoms Among Asian American School‑Aged Youth, Prerna G. Arora, Lorey A. Wheeler, Sycarah Fisher, Marymilt Restituyo, Jessica Barnes‑Najor

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The current study sought to examine the prospective relationship of peer victimization on changes in Asian American youth’s depressive symptoms during early adolescence, a crucial period for the development of depression and engagement in peer victimization among youth. Further, as guided by cultural–ecological frameworks, the current study also sought to examine the role of school-based peer support and gender as moderators on the relationship between peer victimization and depressive symptoms among this understudied population. Participants included Asian American youth (N = 232; M age = 12.96, SD = 1.40; 51% girls) who completed questionnaires in the school context. Data …

An Exploratory Study Of The Relative Effects Of Various Protective Factors On Depressive Symptoms Among Older People, Caitlin Worrall, Michelle I. Jongenelis, Peter M. Mcevoy, Ben Jackson, Robert U. Newton, Simone Pettigrew

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© Copyright © 2020 Worrall, Jongenelis, McEvoy, Jackson, Newton and Pettigrew. Objective: The present study investigated the relative importance of various factors found to be negatively associated with depressive symptoms in older adults and assessed the potential moderating effect of sociodemographic characteristics for each factor. Method: Depressive symptoms were measured with the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Psychological, social, and physical health measures relating to the following factors were also administered: personal growth, purpose in life, self-esteem, self-efficacy, social support, self-rated health, life satisfaction, and physical activity. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to investigate the most important factors …

Affect Variability And Predictability: Using Recurrence Quantification Analysis To Better Understand How The Dynamics Of Affect Relate To Health, Brooke N. Jenkins, John F. Hunter, Michael J. Richardson, Tamlin S. Conner, Sarah D. Pressman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Changes in affect over time have been associated with health outcomes. However, previously utilized measurement methods focus on variability of affect (e.g., standard deviation, root mean squared successive difference) and ignore the more complex temporal patterns of affect over time. These patterns may be an important feature in understanding how the dynamics of affect relate to health. Recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) may help alleviate this problem by assessing temporal characteristics unassessed by past methods. RQA metrics, such as determinism and recurrence, can provide a measure of the predictability of affect over time, indexing how often patterns within affective experiences repeat. …

Full Statistical Mediation Of The Relationship Between Trauma And Depressive Symptoms, Patricia J. Place, Shichun Ling, Lawrence Patihis

Faculty Publications

Owing to the potentially devastating effects of trauma‐induced depression, explaining the relationship between trauma and depressive symptoms is important. In this study, we measured lifelong exposure to potentially traumatic events and depressive symptoms in 370‐female undergraduates. We also measured anxiety, past negative time perspective and dissociation as potential mediators. Trauma exposure and depressive symptoms were related with a small but significant effect size (r = .16). Trauma was not associated with dissociation. We found that past negative time perspective and anxiety were full statistical mediators of this trauma‐depressive symptoms relationship. These two mediators combined accounted for all of the …

Cultural Stressors, Identity Development, And Substance Use Attitudes Among Hispanic Immigrant Adolescents, Timothy J. Grigsby, Myriam Forster, Alan Meca, Byron L. Zamboanga, Seth J. Schwartz, Jennifer B. Unger

Psychology Faculty Publications

The goal of this investigation was to determine whether various cultural stressors (bicultural stress, perceived discrimination, and perceived negative context of reception [PNCR]) predict positive and negative substance use attitudes, directly and indirectly through personal identity, in a sample of immigrant Hispanic adolescents. Data on cultural stressors, substance use attitudes, and covariates were collected from 302 Hispanic immigrant adolescents (152 from Miami [61% Cuban] and 150 from Los Angeles [70% Mexican]) at 3 time points. PNCR was associated with identity confusion (𝛽=.175, p=.033). Identity confusion significantly predicted higher positive attitudes toward alcohol and other drug (AOD; 𝛽 =.216, p<.001) and cigarette use (𝛽=.191, p=.015) and mediated the relationship between PNCR with unfavorable AOD attitudes (𝛽 =-.019, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-0.052,-0.001]) and favorable AOD attitudes (𝛽=0.038, 95% CI [0.003, 0.086]). Perceptions of a negative context of reception may hinder successful personal identity formation and impact health outcomes for immigrant youth.

Depressive Symptoms Are Associated With Cognitive Function In The Elderly With Type 2 Diabetes, Elizabeth Guerrero-Berroa, Ramit Ravona-Springer, James Schmeidler, Anthony Heymann, Laili Soleimani, Mary Sano, Derek Leroith, Rachel Preiss, Ruth Zukran, Jeremy M. Silverman, Michal Schnaider Beeri

Publications and Research

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a metabolic condition associated with poor clinical and cognitive outcomes including vascular disease, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and dementia. In the general elderly population, depression has been consistently identified as a risk factor for cognitive impairment/decline. However, the association between depression and cognitive function in T2D has been understudied.

Objective: We investigated the association between depression and cognitive function in a large sample of cognitively normal elderly with T2D.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we examined 738 participants, aged 65–88 years old, enrolled in the Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline study. For each …

Inferential Style, School Teachers, And Depressive Symptoms In College Students., Caroline M. Pittard, Patrick Pössel, Timothy Lau

Faculty Scholarship

Depressive symptoms affect around half of students at some point during college. According to the hopelessness theory of depression, making negative inferences about stressful events is a vulnerability for developing depression. Negative and socio-emotional teaching behavior can be stressors that are associated with depression in school students. First-time college freshmen completed the Cognitive Style Questionnaire (CSQ), Teaching Behavior Questionnaire (TBQ), and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). While completing the TBQ, participants reported on a teacher from prior education to college. Multiple regression analysis found significant effects of the independent variables (four teaching behavior types, inferential style, and interactions …

Drinking To Cope With Depressive Symptoms And Ruminative Thinking: A Multiple Mediation Model Among College Students, Adrian J. Bravo, Matthew R. Pearson, James M. Henson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Understanding the potential psychosocial mechanisms that explain (i.e., mediate) the associations between depressive symptoms and alcohol-related problems can improve interventions targeting college students.

Objectives: The current research examined four distinct facets of rumination (e.g., problem-focused thoughts, counterfactual thinking, repetitive thoughts, and anticipatory thoughts) and drinking to cope motives as potential explanatory mechanisms by which depressive symptoms are associated with increased alcohol-related problems.

Method: Participants were undergraduate students from a large, southeastern university in the United States that consumed at least one drink per typical week in the previous month (n = 403). The majority of participants were female ( …

Associations Between Teacher-Reported School Climate And Depressive Symptoms In Australian Adolescents : A 5-Year Longitudinal Study., Patrick Pössel, Christopher Rakes, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Michael G. Sawyer, Susan H. Spence, Jeanie Sheffield

Faculty Scholarship

Adolescent depression is serious and common. As adolescents spend approximately 15,000 h in school, this setting is a logical place to seek etiological factors. Research suggests there are negative associations between school climate and adolescent depressive symptoms. However, such studies typically use student reports of both climate and depressive symptoms; this is problematic because common method variance results when the same individual provides information on all variables, contributing to overestimations of associations between depressive symptoms and school climate. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the association between teacher-reported school climate and adolescent-reported depressive symptoms. Thus, 2545 Australian …

Universal School-Based Depression Prevention ‘Op Volle Kracht’: A Longitudinal Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial, Y. R. Tak, A. Lichtwarck-Aschoff, Jane Gillham, R. M. P. Van Zundert, R. C. M. E. Engels

Psychology Faculty Works

The longitudinal effectiveness of a universal, adolescent school-based depression prevention program Op Volle Kracht (OVK) was evaluated by means of a cluster randomized controlled trial with intervention and control condition (school as usual). OVK was based on the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP) (Gillham et al. Psychological Science, 6, 343–351, 1995). Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Child Depression Inventory (Kovacs 2001). In total, 1341 adolescents participated, Mage = 13.91, SD = 0.55, 47.3 % girls, 83.1 % Dutch ethnicity; intervention group n = 655, four schools; control group n = 735, five schools. Intent-to-treat analyses revealed that OVK did not …

The Interrelations Between Spiritual Well-Being, Pain Interference And Depressive Symptoms In Patients With Multiple Sclerosis, Sheri A. Nsamenang, Jameson K. Hirsch, Raluca Topciu, Andrew D. Goodman, Paul R. Duberstein

ETSU Faculty Works

Depressive symptoms are common in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), and are frequently exacerbated by pain; however, spiritual well-being may allow persons with MS to more effectively cope with pain-related deficits in physical and role functioning. We explored the associations between spiritual well-being, pain interference and depressive symptoms, assessing each as a potential mediator, in eighty-one patients being treated for MS, who completed self-report measures: Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale, Pain Effects Scale, and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised. At the bivariate level, spiritual well-being and its subscale of meaning and peace were negatively associated …

Association Between Depressive Symptoms, Use Of Antidepressant Medication And The Metabolic Syndrome: The Maine-Syracuse Study, Georgina E. Crichton, Merrill F. Elias, Michael A. Robbins

Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Papers

No abstract provided.

Teaching Behavior Questionnaire : Verifying Factor Structure And Investigating Depressive Symptoms In Catholic Middle And High Schools., Caroline M. Pittard, Patrick Pössel, Rosamond J. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

Teaching behavior impacts student psychopathology. This study explored the associations between teaching behavior types and depressive symptoms in students. The Teaching Behavior Questionnaire (TBQ) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies – Depression Scale (CES-D) were completed by 763 middle and 976 high school students from private Catholic schools. In the middle school sample, a confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the four-factor structure of the TBQ previously found in public high schools. As predicted, a two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) analysis with the high school sample found that only the Negative Teaching Behavior scale of the TBQ was positively related to CES-D …

Do Depressive Symptoms Mediate The Relationship Between Hopelessness And Diurnal Cortisol Rhythm?, Patrick Pössel, Amanda M. Mitchell, Elaine Sjögren, Margareta Kristenson

Faculty Scholarship

Purpose: Research has revealed a well-established relationship of depressive symptoms and hopelessness with a variety of physical illnesses that are associated with a dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis. The purpose of this study was to test if depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between hopelessness and cortisol, a measure of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis. Methods: Hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and diurnal cortisol rhythm were measured in 257 adults (128 women and 129 men; age range: 20-74 years) in this cross-sectional study. To test the hypothesis, two linear regression analyses and asymmetrical confidence intervals around the regression weights were conducted. A second set of analyses was …

Do Depressive Symptoms Predict The Incidence Of Myocardial Infarction Independent Of Hopelessness?, Patrick Pössel, Amanda M. Mitchell, Kimmo Ronkainen, George A. Kaplan, Jussi Kauhanen, Maarit Valtonen

Faculty Scholarship

Depression and hopelessness predict myocardial infarction (MI), but it is unclear whether depression and hopelessness are independent predictors of MI incidents. Hopelessness, depression, and MI incidence rate 18 years later were measured in 2005 men. Cox regressions were conducted with hopelessness and depression serving as individual predictors of MI. Another Cox model examined whether the two predictors predict MI when adjusting for each other. Depression and hopelessness predicted MI in independent regressions but when adjusting for each other, hopelessness, but not depression, predicted MI incidents. Thus, these results suggest that depression and hopelessness are not independent predictors of MI.

Burnout Does Not Help Predict Depression In French Schoolteachers, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

Objectives: Burnout has been viewed as a phase in the development of depression. However, supportive research is scarce. We examined whether burnout predicted depression among French school teachers.

Methods: We conducted a 2-wave, 21-month study involving 627 teachers (73% female) working in French primary and secondary schools. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory and depression with the 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The PHQ-9 grades depressive symptom severity and provides a provisional diagnosis of major depression. Depression was treated both as a continuous and categorical variable using linear and logistic regression analyses. We controlled …

Hopelessness The ‘Active Ingredient’? : Associations Of Hopelessness And Depressive Symptoms With Interleukin-6., Amanda M. Mitchell, Patrick Pössel, Elaine Sjögren, Margareta Kristenson

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: Previous research has revealed a relationship of depressive symptoms and hopelessness with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) which are associated with elevated levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6). The objective of this study was to explore whether depressive symptoms and hopelessness are independent predictors of IL-6 levels. Method: Hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and IL-6 were measured in 45 Swedish adults (26 women and 19 men; age range: 31-65 years). Two separated linear regressions were conducted with hopelessness and depressive symptoms serving as individual predictors of IL-6. Another regression analysis examined whether the two predictors predict IL-6 when controlling for each other. The regression coefficients …

Functional Impairment, Illness Burden, And Depressive Symptoms In Older Adults: Does Type Of Social Relationship Matter?, Joshua P. Hatfield, Jameson K. Hirsch, Jeffrey M. Lyness

ETSU Faculty Works

Objective: The nature of interpersonal relationships, whether supportive or critical, may affect the association between health status and mental health outcomes. We examined the potential moderating effects of social support, as a buffer, and family criticism, as an exacerbating factor, on the association between illness burden, functional impairment and depressive symptoms.

Methods: Our sample of 735 older adults, 65 years and older, was recruited from internal and family medicine primary care offices. Trained interviewers administered the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Duke Social Support Inventory, and Family Emotional Involvement and Criticism Scale. Physician-rated assessments of health, including the Karnofsky Performance …

Mexican-Origin Youths’ Trajectories Of Depressive Symptoms: The Role Of Familism Values, Katharine H. Zeiders, Kimberly A. Updegraff, Adriana J. Umana-Taylor, Lorey A. Wheeler, Norma J. Perez-Brena, Sue A. Rodriguez

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Purpose—To describe Mexican-origin youths’ trajectories of depressive symptoms from early to late adolescence and examine the role of three aspects of familism values: supportive, obligation, and referent familism. Methods—Mexican-origin adolescents (N = 492) participated in home interviews and provided self-reports of depressive symptoms and cultural values at four assessments across an 8-year span. Using a cohort sequential design and accounting for the nesting within the 246 families (2 youth per family), we examined depressive symptoms from ages 12 to 22 years and the within-person, between-sibling, and between-family effects of familism values. Results—Mexican-origin males’ depressive symptoms decreased across …

Alchoholism And Intimate Partner Violence: Effects On Children's Psychosocial Adjustment, Keith Klostermann, Michelle L. Kelley

Psychology Faculty Publications

It is widely recognized that alcoholism and relationship violence often have serious consequences for adults; however, children living with alcoholic parents are susceptible to the deleterious familial environments these caregivers frequently create. Given the prevalence of IPV among patients entering substance abuse treatment, coupled with the negative familial consequences associated with these types of behavior, this review explores what have been, to this point, two divergent lines of research: (a) the effects of parental alcoholism on children, and (b) the effects of children's exposure to intimate partner violence. In this article, the interrelationship between alcoholism and IPV is examined, with …