This study examined whether the cognitive vulnerability-stress model of depression may contribute to our understanding of the gender difference in depression in adolescence. Specifically, we examined emergent gender differences in depressive symptoms, cognitive style, and stress in the context of exposure, cognitive scar, and stress generation models. We also examined whether gender moderated the cognitive vulnerability-stress effects on depression. Participants were 366 youth from a community sample who completed measures of depressive symptoms, stress, and negative cognitive style at ages 11, 13, and 15. Data were analyzed longitudinally using multi-level modeling and structural equation modeling. Results indicated that gender differences in depressive symptoms emerged prior to gender differences in cognitive vulnerability and stressful life events; depressive symptoms significantly mediated the emergent gender difference in cognitive style and dependent interpersonal stress. Gender also moderated several components of the cognitive vulnerability-stress model. Girls showed stronger associations between stress and depression over time, and the cognitive vulnerabilitystress interaction was significant in predicting girls' but not boys' depression trajectories.

This study examined rumination as a moderator of the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms in a sample of adolescents using a multi-wave prospective design. Stressors were analyzed by domain (independent/ dependent and interpersonal/noninterpersonal) and both brooding and reflection subtypes of rumination were examined as moderators. At the baseline assessment, 111 adolescents (ages 14-19) reported rumination and depressive symptoms. Youth were subsequently asked to complete a weekly diary assessment for 8 consecutive weeks, and again at 12 weeks, during which stressors and depressive symptoms were reported. Results indicated that brooding, but not reflection, moderated the relationship between stress and depression, for nearly all domains of stress. All results were in the expected direction, suggesting that the greater tendency to brood exacerbates the effects of stress on depression, whereas the greater tendency to reflect does not.

The development of negative cognitive style was examined in a longitudinal study of 366 community youth. Cognitive style and depressive symptoms were evaluated at ages 11, 13, and 15. Latent growth mixture modeling identified three unique trajectory patterns of negative cognitive style. The normative group (71% of the sample) displayed the least negative cognitive style and lowest depression scores at all assessments. The increasing group (22% of the sample) displayed a cognitive style that was comparable to the normative group at age 11 but increased markedly over time; this group displayed the highest depression scores at age 13 and 15, and youth in this group were most likely to have reported clinically significant depressive symptoms during the course of the study. Finally, the decreasing group (7% of the sample) displayed the most negative cognitive style at age 11 but an overall decline in negative cognitive style over time. Child sex, child temperament at age 1, observed maternal feedback to child failure at age 11, mothers' cognitive styles at age 11, and total stress from ages 11 to 15 served as predictors of class membership.