Cognitive mechanisms linking low trait positive affect to depressive symptoms: A prospective diary study

Abstract

Low trait positive affect represents an affective vulnerability to depression, but little research has examined mechanisms linking low trait positive affect to depressive symptoms. The current study investigated whether the cognitive strategies of dampening and positive rumination mediated the prospective association between low trait positive affect and depressive symptoms. Participants were 209 undergraduate students who participated in an eight-week online study. Depressive symptoms and trait temperament were assessed at baseline, followed by seven weekly questionnaires which assessed cognitive strategies in response to weekly events and weekly depressive symptoms. Data were analysed using multilevel modelling following the mediation approach proposed by Nezlek. Results indicated that low trait positive affect significantly predicted less positive rumination but not greater dampening in response to weekly positive events. Less positive rumination in response to weekly positive events partially mediated the association between low trait positive affect and greater depressive symptoms across the study.

Associations Between Temperament, Emotion Regulation, and Depression in Youth: The Role of Positive Temperament

“…Although it has been broadly recognized that high levels of NE indeed go hand in hand with depression (see Hyde et al 2008), we have now found further evidence suggesting that PE is also of great importance when we study depression in youth. More specifically, the finding that PE and depressive symptoms are negatively related is in agreement with a number of longitudinal studies on PE, showing that low PE is a risk factor for the development of depressive symptoms in youth (Verstraeten et al 2008;Harding et al 2014;Hudson et al 2015). Moreover, our data offer evidence supporting the assumption that NE and PE interact as this joint effect is significantly related to depressive symptoms in youth.…”

“…Yet, in conforming with the results of Verstraeten et al (2012), no significant relationships were found in our study. This is in contrast with the findings of other studies that found that low PE was associated with maladaptive ruminative ER strategies (Verstraeten et al 2012) and less positive rumination (an adaptive ER strategy) (Harding et al 2014). There are several explanations for these null findings.…”

“…On the contrary, high levels of PE have been linked to the use of more adaptive ER strategies, such as positive rumination, in children (Verstraeten et al 2012), as well as to reappraisal, and the use of less maladaptive ER strategies, such as suppression, in young-adults (Gross and John 2003). On the other hand, low levels of PE have been related to deficits in overall adaptive ER abilities in young-adults (Harding et al 2014). This underlines the need of addressing also the role of PE in studying the relationship between temperamental reactivity and maladaptive and adaptive ER strategies in adolescents with depressive symptoms.…”

“…Yet, low levels of PE are as significant as high levels of NE when studied in terms of the risk of depression (Lengua et al 1999). Indeed, it has been shown that low levels of PE predict the development of depressive symptoms in youth (Harding et al 2014;Hudson et al 2015), and that of depressive disorder into adulthood (Caspi et al 1996). Therefore, future research should further include the PE dimension for understanding youth depression.…”

“…Through the years, research on temperamental reactivity has typically focused on the associations of NE and PE with depressive symptoms separately (e.g., Harding et al 2014;Mezulis et al 2011b). Interestingly, researchers recently started to address the dynamic interplay between NE and PE for depressive symptoms, assuming that both temperamental reactivity dimensions also moderate one another's association with depressive symptoms (e.g., Loney et al 2006;Vasey et al 2013a, b;Verstraeten et al 2012).…”