Rumination and Overgeneral Autobiographical Memory in Adolescents: An Integration of Cognitive Vulnerabilities to Depression

Abstract

During adolescence, rates of depression dramatically increase and girls become twice as likely as boys to develop depression. Research suggests that overgeneral autobiographical memory and rumination are vulnerability factors for depressive symptoms in adolescence that may be triggered by stressful life events. The current longitudinal study included 160 early adolescents (Mage = 12.44 years, 60.0 % African American, 40.0 % Caucasian, and 56.2 % female). At baseline, adolescents completed measures of current depressive symptoms, rumination, and specificity of autobiographical memories. Approximately 9 months later, the adolescents completed measures of current depressive symptoms and stressful life events that had occurred between baseline and follow-up. Analyses indicated that girls with more overgeneral autobiographical memories in combination with higher levels of rumination were most vulnerable to experiencing increases in depressive symptoms following stressful life events. Additionally, retrieving more specific autobiographical memories appeared to buffer against the impact of negative life events on depressive symptoms among both boys and girls. Memory specificity may play a protective role in depression risk, suggesting that memory specificity training interventions may prove beneficial for adolescents.

Autobiographical memory dysfunctions in depressive disorders

“…These reports and findings are also confirmed by Aglan et al . and Hamlat et al . On the other hand, Rosenbach and Renneberg claim that high sensitivity to rejection, which is a consequence of numerous traumatic experiences in relationships with the closest family in childhood, predisposes to dysfunctions of AM.…”

“…Overgeneral memories refer to fairly often repeated situations (‘I go to church every Sunday’) or to situations that last longer than 1 day (‘I was in second grade of middle school last year’) . In response to an emerging stimulus, patients with symptoms of depression recollect overgeneral memories more often than the specific ones . This concerns mainly negative memories.…”

“…As early as in 1991, Nolen‐Hoeksema and Morrow considered them both a possible cause as well as a consequence (symptom) of depression. Ruminations in patients suffering from recurrent depressive disorders (rDD) most often concern recollections from autobiographical memory (AM) …”

Rumination and depression in Chinese university students: The mediating role of overgeneral autobiographical memory

“…This result is consistent with previous research (Gibbs & Rude, 2004; Hamlat et al, 2014). Difficulty in retrieving specific autobiographical memories is one of the features of depression, and individuals with lower levels of autobiographical memory specificity had a higher level of depression (Hermans et al, 2008).…”

Annual Research Review: An expanded account of information‐processing mechanisms in risk for child and adolescent anxiety and depression

“…What studies have differed on is whether individuals with other psychiatric diagnoses also show similar patterns of OGM, raising questions over whether these are distinct features of depression. Several studies (Kleim & Ehlers, ; Rawal & Rice, ; Sumner et al., ) have found that fewer specific memories predict subsequent episodes of depression longitudinally (after controlling for baseline depressive symptoms) especially in girls (Hamlat et al., ) and in those with previous depressive episodes (Kleim & Ehlers, ). However, not all studies have been promising (Crane et al., ).…”