Cognitive vulnerabilities and development of suicidal thinking in children of depressed mothers: A longitudinal investigation

Abstract

Although children of depressed parents are at heightened risk for suicidal ideation, little is known about specific risk factors. This study focused on the relation between a broad range of cognitive vulnerabilities proposed by the leading cognitive theories and the development of suicidal ideation in children. Participants were 209 mothers (aged 24-55) and their 8-14 year old children. Children of depressed mothers who had previously experienced suicidal ideation themselves reported higher levels of brooding rumination than children of depressed mothers who had not experienced suicidal ideation as well as children of never depressed mothers who had not experienced suicidal ideation. Further, among children of depressed mothers with no prior history of suicidal ideation, higher levels of hopelessness and lower global self-worth predicted first onset of suicidal ideation over a 2-year follow-up. Importantly, these results were maintained even after taking the occurrence of major depressive disorder in children during the follow-up into account. The findings highlight specific cognitive vulnerabilities that could be targeted in early suicide prevention and intervention efforts.

Neurocognition and the Suicidal Process

“…Moreover, the relationships in a suicidal individual's family may be compromised, eventually leading to altered cognitive development; the resultant poor self-esteem, depressive traits, and increased neuroticism and impulsivity act as vulnerability factors for suicide. Cognitive vulnerability within suicidal families may also include the Hopelessness Theory, according to which there may be negative inferential styles worsening the individual's perception of life, and the Response Style Theory, such as brooding rumination, both of them showing a controversial association to suicidality (Tsypes and Gibb 2016).…”

Attentional Disengagement Deficits Predict Brooding, but Not Reflection, Over a One-Year Period

“…Conversely, self-reflection – or the purposeful and non-judgmental appraisal of the positive or neutral content of distressing events – is believed to be an adaptive form of self-focused attention that facilitates problem solving (Treynor et al, 2003; Kross et al, 2005) and supports emotional well-being (Brans et al, 2013). Notably, the relationship between self-reflection and depression is less clear than that for brooding, with some studies finding no association between reflection and depression outcomes (Koval et al, 2012; Jose and Weir, 2013; Moore et al, 2013; Johnson et al, 2016; Tsypes and Gibb, 2016; Junkins and Haeffel, 2017; Artiran et al, 2019), others showing no distinction between its effects and those of brooding (Johnson and Whisman, 2013; Wilkinson et al, 2013; Padilla Paredes and Calvete Zumalde, 2015), and yet others observing the positive benefits of reflection on depression-relevant processes (Joormann et al, 2006; Burwell and Shirk, 2007; Arditte and Joormann, 2011). Thus, while brooding and reflection are forms of self-focused attention, the two differ as to the target of salient focus and perhaps relate to divergent affective outcomes.…”