This study examined the role of childhood abuse and neglect in sensitizing adolescents to the effects of proximal stressful life events in a cross-sectional sample of 103 depressed and nondepressed adolescents. Consistent with hypotheses, adolescents with a history of childhood abuse and/or neglect reported a lower level of threat of stressful life events prior to episode onset than that reported by those without. This effect was specific to those on their 1st episode of depression and was specific to independent events (i.e., stressors outside of adolescents' control). Further, this effect was robust when controlling for level of chronic difficulties, which was higher in those with childhood abuse and/or neglect. The authors suggest that childhood abuse and/or neglect may be an important risk factor that sensitizes individuals to the effects of acute independent life events.

The present cross-sectional study examined the relations of particular forms of childhood adversity (e.g., emotional maltreatment vs. physical abuse vs. sexual abuse) to specific early maladaptive schema themes (e.g., worthlessness/loss vs. danger) and symptom profiles (i.e., anhedonic vs. anxious). Seventy-six depressed adolescents retrospectively reported on their childhood experiences of emotional maltreatment, physical abuse, and sexual abuse in a contextual semi-structured interview. They were also administered the Young Schema Questionnaire to measure early maladaptive schemas, and the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire to measure anhedonic and anxious symptomatology. Consistent with specificity hypotheses, schemas with themes of loss/worthlessness preferentially mediated the relation between childhood adversity and anhedonic symptoms, while schemas with themes of danger preferentially mediated the relation between childhood adversity and anxious symptoms. Sexual abuse was not significantly associated with either depression or anxiety symptoms and, thus, mediation models involving sexual abuse were not tested. Implications for fine-grained models of etiology in depression are discussed.

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Research on child psychopathology focuses almost exclusively on the role of negative schémas as a vulnerability factor, while there has been a neglect of research on the role ofpositive schémas in child psychopathology (MacLeod & Moore, 2000). While decades of research have established negative cognitive schémas as a potent vulnerability factor for various negative developmental outcomes (e.g., Abela & Hankin, 2008), cognitive models of child psychopathology have yet to fully integrate positive schémas as a potential vulnerability factor. The little research conducted on positive schémas to date, suggests they bear more attention in this regard (e.g.,

The present study examined the role of childhood abuse and neglect and depression recurrence in moderating the generation of stressful life events in adolescent depression. Maltreatment history and stressful life events were assessed using two rigorous contextual interviews and rating systems. In a sample of 59 community depressed adolescents we found significantly higher rates of interpersonal events in the 3-month period immediately following depression episode onset versus the 3-month period immediately preceding onset in adolescents with a history of childhood maltreatment. By contrast, rates of events remained constant over a matched period in a control group of non-maltreated adolescents. Furthermore, the generation of interpersonal events only held among those on a first onset of depression. These results suggest that a history of childhood abuse and neglect exacerbates the psychosocial dysfunction associated with the onset of depression, particularly in the very first episode.