Abstract
Although relationships between co-rumination and depressive symptoms have often been found, little research attention has been given to mechanisms underlying this association. The current study investigated brooding rumination as a mediator of the relationship between co-rumination and depressive symptoms. Analyses were performed on data of 1549 adolescents (53.4% girls; Mage = 12.93, range 9–17) using three waves of data with 1-year intervals. Mediated and indirect effects were investigated by means of cross-lagged analyses. The results indicated that co-rumination was not predictive of depressive symptoms 2 years later. However, co-rumination did have an indirect effect on prospective depressive symptoms through brooding rumination. Additional analyses looking into the directionality of effects showed that neither brooding rumination nor depressive symptoms were predictive of relative increases in one’s tendency to co-ruminate. Multi-group analyses further showed that findings were not moderated by gender or age. The current study contributes to the growing literature on the role of interpersonal and intrapersonal affect-regulation styles in predicting depressive symptoms and suggests that passive and catastrophic problem talk with same-sex friends may get internalized into maladaptive and repetitive thinking patterns.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Charlotte Van Bel, Kaatje Vandevelde, Veerle Boonen, Sanne Geunes, Heleen Theunissen, Eline Lambrechts, Nathalie Cuypers, Kirsten Schoovaerts, Sabrina Baeten, Charlotte Ciers, Nandi De Preter, Yentl Van der Wee, and Isabelle Yaramis for their help in the data collection. They further thank Joshua Ahles for his insightful comments on this manuscript.
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This study was funded by Research Foundation—Flanders (Grant G.0923.12 to P.B. and PhD fellowship to M.B.). F.R. is supported by the KU Leuven Centre of Excellence on Generalization Research (GRIP*TT; PF/10/005).
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M.B. conceived and designed the study, collected the data, performed the statistical analyses, interpreted the data, and took the lead in writing up the manuscript; K.L. participated in drafting the manuscript, assisted in data analyses and interpretation, and critically revised the manuscript; F.R. participated in the conception and design of the study, participated in drafting the manuscript, and critically revised the manuscript; P.B. participated in the conception and design of the study, participated in drafting the manuscript, and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Bastin, M., Luyckx, K., Raes, F. et al. Co-Rumination and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence: Prospective Associations and the Mediating Role of Brooding Rumination. J Youth Adolescence 50, 1003–1016 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01412-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01412-4