Depressive Rumination and Worry in the Development of Depressive and Anxious Symptoms in University Students

Both rumination and worry are repetitive and unproductive cognitive processes. Different studies have shown their negative impact on emotional wellbeing. This investigation evaluates the influence of depressive rumination (including its subfactors: reflection and negative rumination), and worry in the development of depressive symptoms in a sample of 226 college students. Two measurements were performed with a time lag of 1 month between the first and second. The results showed a relationship between high levels of depressive rumination and worry and high levels of depressive and anxious symptoms. However, having being statistically controlled the initial depressive or anxious symptomatology, only depressive rumination showed a significant relationship with the assessed symptomatology in the follow-up, exclusively with anxiety. It was observed a mediator role of rumination and concern in the differences of gender in anxious and depressive symptoms. These results stress the need for special consideration of these types of repetitive thoughts on preventive programs and treatment of depression.