Contemporary cognitive models of depression propose that cognitive biases for negative information at the level of attention (attention biases; AB) and interpretation (interpretation biases; IB) increase depression risk by promoting maladaptive emotion regulation (ER). So far, empirical support testing interactions between these variables is restricted to non-clinical and clinical adult samples. The aim of the current study was to extend these findings to a sample of children and adolescents. This cross-sectional study included 109 children aged 9–14 years who completed behavioural measures of AB (passive-viewing task) and IB (scrambled sentences task) as well as self-report measures of ER and depressive symptoms. In order to maximize the variance in these outcomes we included participants with a clinical diagnosis of depression as well as non-depressed youth with an elevated familial risk of depression and non-depressed youth with a low familial risk of depression. Path model analysis indicated that all variables (AB, IB, adaptive and maladaptive ER) had a direct effect on depressive symptoms. IB and AB also had significant indirect effects on depressive symptoms via maladaptive and adaptive ER. These findings provide initial support for the role of ER as a mediator between cognitive biases and depressive symptoms and provide the foundations for future experimental and longitudinal studies. In contrast to studies in adult samples, both adaptive as well as maladaptive ER mediated the effect of cognitive biases on depressive symptoms. This suggests potentially developmental differences in the role of ER across the lifespan.

当代抑郁症认知模型提出，在注意力（注意力偏差；AB）和解释（解释偏差；IB）水平上对负面信息的认知偏差通过促进适应不良的情绪调节（ER）增加抑郁风险。到目前为止，经验支持测试这些变量之间的相互作用仅限于非临床和临床成人样本。本研究的目的是将这些发现扩展到儿童和青少年样本。这项横断面研究包括 109 名 9-14 岁的儿童，他们完成了 AB（被动观看任务）和 IB（打乱句子任务）的行为测量以及 ER 和抑郁症状的自我报告测量。为了最大限度地提高这些结果的差异，我们纳入了临床诊断为抑郁症的参与者，以及家族患抑郁症风险较高的非抑郁青年和家族患抑郁症风险低的非抑郁青年。路径模型分析表明，所有变量（AB、IB、适应性和适应不良的 ER）对抑郁症状都有直接影响。IB 和 AB 也通过适应不良和适应性 ER 对抑郁症状产生显着的间接影响。这些发现为 ER 作为认知偏差和抑郁症状之间的中介作用提供了初步支持，并为未来的实验和纵向研究奠定了基础。与成人样本的研究相比，适应性和适应不良的 ER 均介导了认知偏差对抑郁症状的影响。