The response styles theory of depression: A test of specificity and causal mediation

This prospective study tested the diathesis-stress and causal mediation components of the response styles theory of depression. In addition, it examined whether rumination predicts increases in anxious as well as depressive symptoms. At Time 1, 87 college students completed measures of rumination, hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms. Participants also completed measures of hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms at three time points later in the semester: immediately after receiving their most difficult midterm exam grade (Time 2), 4-8 hours later (Time 3), and 4 days later (Time 4). Regardless of exam outcome, the tendency to ruminate in response to depressed mood was associated with: (1) increases in anxious symptoms between Time I and Time 3; and (2) increases in both anxious and depressive symptoms between Time I and Time 4. In addition, the relationship between rumination and increases in both depressive and anxious symptoms was mediated by hopelessness. In other words, individuals with a ruminative response style exhibited increases in both depressive and anxious symptoms because they exhibited increases in hopelessness.