Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T18:16:26.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cognitive Vulnerabilities for Depression and Anxiety in Childhood: Specificity of Anxiety Sensitivity and Rumination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2014

Hannah M. Brown ,
Richard Meiser-Stedman ,
Harriet Woods  and
Kathryn J. Lester
Hannah M. Brown*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
Richard Meiser-Stedman
Affiliation:
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
Harriet Woods
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
Kathryn J. Lester*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
*
Reprint requests to Hannah Brown, Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Kathryn Lester, Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Childhood anxiety and depression frequently co-occur. Exploring specificity in cognitive processes for anxiety and depression in childhood can provide insight into cognitive vulnerabilities contributing to the development of anxiety and depressive disorders and inform targeted psychological interventions. Anxiety sensitivity and rumination are robust cognitive vulnerabilities for anxiety and depression, respectively. However, despite conceptual similarities, they are rarely considered together within a single study. Aims: The current study explored specific and shared associations between anxiety sensitivity subscales and rumination and anxiety and depressive symptoms in unselected children. Method: Multiple regression analyses explored to what extent specific self-reported anxiety sensitivity subscales (physical, social and mental concerns) and rumination predicted anxiety and depressive symptoms in 147 unselected children, aged 7–11 years. Results: Physical and social concern subscales of anxiety sensitivity were specifically associated with anxiety, whilst rumination was specifically associated with depressive symptoms. The mental concerns subscale of anxiety sensitivity was independently associated with both anxiety and depressive symptoms. These associations were only partially mediated by rumination. Conclusions: Anxiety and depression in young people are characterized by specific and shared cognitions. Evidence for shared and specific associations between the cognitive vulnerabilities of anxiety sensitivity and rumination, and anxiety and depression highlight the utility of transdiagnostic research and confirm that cognitive therapies may benefit from targeting cognitive concerns relating specifically to the patient's presenting symptoms.

Keywords

Anxietydepressioncognitionspecificity
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 30 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abela, J. Z., Brozina, K. and Haigh, E. (2002). An examination of the response styles theory of depression in third- and seventh-grade children: a short-term longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 515–527.Google Scholar
Angold, A., Costello, E. J. and Erkanli, A. (1999). Comorbidity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 57–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Angold, A., Costello, E. J., Messer, S. C., Pickles, A., Winder, F. and Silver, D. (1995). The development of a short questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in children and adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 5, 1–12.Google Scholar
Axelson, D. A. and Birmaher, B. (2001). Relation between anxiety and depressive disorders in childhood and adolescence. Depression and Anxiety, 14, 67–78.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Brown, G., Steer, R. A., Eidelson, J. I. and Riskind, J. H. (1987). Differentiating anxiety and depression: a test of the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 179.Google Scholar
Brown, H. M., Trzaskowski, M., Zavos, H. M. S., Rijsdijk, F. V., Gregory, A. M. and Eley, T. C. (2012). Phenotypic and genetic structure of anxiety sensitivity in adolescence and early adulthood. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26, 680–688.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, H. M., Waszczuk, M. A., Zavos, H. M. S., Trzaskowski, M., Gregory, A. M. and Eley, T. C. (2014). Cognitive content specificity in anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms: a twin study of cross-sectional associations with anxiety sensitivity dimensions across development. Psychological Medicine, FirstView, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. A. and Beck, A. T. (1989). Cognitive theory and therapy of anxiety and depression. In Kendall, P. C. and Watson, D. (Eds.), Anxiety and Depression: distinctive and overlapping features (pp. 379–411). San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Clark, L. A. and Watson, D. (1991). Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, B. J., Enns, M. W. and Taylor, S. (2001). The effect of rumination as a mediator of elevated anxiety sensitivity in major depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 525–534.Google Scholar
Dehon, C., Weems, C. F., Stickle, T. R., Costa, N. M. and Berman, S. L. (2005). A cross-sectional evaluation of the factorial invariance of anxiety sensitivity in adolescents and young adults. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 799–810.Google Scholar
Epkins, C. C., Gardner, C. and Scanlon, N. (2013). Rumination and anxiety sensitivity in preadolescent girls: independent, combined, and specific associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 35, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, T., Goodman, R. and Meltzer, H. (2003). The British child and adolescent mental health survey 1999: the prevalence of DSM-IV disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 1203–1211.Google Scholar
Fresco, D., Frankel, A., Mennin, D., Turk, C. and Heimberg, R. (2002). Distinct and overlapping features of rumination and worry: the relationship of cognitive production to negative affective states. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 26, 179–188. doi:10.1023/a:1014517718949 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, A., Watkins, E., Mansell, W. and Shafran, R. (2004). Cognitive Behavioural Processes across Psychological Disorders: a transdiagnostic approach to research and treatment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Joiner, T. E., Schmidt, N. B., Schmidt, K. L., Laurent, J., Catanzaro, S. J., Perez, M., et al. (2002). Anxiety sensitivity as a specific and unique marker of anxious symptoms in youth psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 167–175. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1014757300294 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewinsohn, P. M., Steinmetz, J. L., Larson, D. W. and Franklin, J. (1981). Depression-related cognitions: antecedent or consequence? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90, 213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacKinnon, D. P., Warsi, G. and Dwyer, J. H. (1995). A simulation study of mediated effect measures. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 30, 41–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattis, S. G. and Ollendick, T. H. (1997). Children's cognitive responses to the somatic symptoms of panic. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 25, 47–57.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, E. N., Stewart, S. H. and Taylor, S. (2007). Childhood anxiety sensitivity index factors predict unique variance in DSM-IV anxiety disorder symptoms. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 36, 210–219.Google Scholar
Michael, K. D. and Merrell, K. W. (1998). Reliability of children's self-reported internalizing symptoms over short to medium-length time intervals. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 194–201.Google Scholar
Muris, P., Fokke, M. and Kwik, D. l. (2009). The ruminative response style in adolescents: an examination of its specific link to symptoms of depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 33, 21–32.Google Scholar
Muris, P., Hoeve, I., Meesters, C. and Mayer, B. (2004). Children's perception and interpretation of anxiety-related physical symptoms. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 35, 233–244. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2004.03.008 Google Scholar
Muris, P., Roelofs, J., Meesters, C. and Boomsma, P. (2004). Rumination and worry in nonclinical adolescents. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 539–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muris, P., Schmidt, H., Merckelbach, H. and Schouten, E. (2001). Anxiety sensitivity in adolescents: factor structure and relationships to trait anxiety and symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 89–100. doi:S0005-7967(99)00179-5 Google Scholar
Naragon-Gainey, K. (2010). Meta-analysis of the relations of anxiety sensitivity to the depressive and anxiety disorders. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 128.Google Scholar
Noel, V. A. and Francis, S. E. (2011). A meta-analytic review of the role of child anxiety sensitivity in child anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 721–733.Google Scholar
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1991). Responses to depression and their effects on the duration of depressive episodes. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 569.Google Scholar
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2000). The role of rumination in depressive disorders and mixed anxiety/depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 504–511.Google Scholar
Olatunji, B. O. and Wolitzky-Taylor, K. B. (2009). Anxiety sensitivity and the anxiety disorders: a meta-analytic review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 974–999.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Preacher, K. J. and Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891.Google Scholar
Reiss, S., Peterson, R., Gursky, D. and McNally, R. (1986). Anxiety sensitivity, anxiety frequency and the prediction of fearfulness. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24, 1–8.Google Scholar
Roelofs, J., Rood, L., Meesters, C., te Dorsthorst, V., Bogels, S., Alloy, L. B., et al. (2009). The influence of rumination and distraction on depressed and anxious mood: a prospective examination of the response styles theory in children and adolescents. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 18, 635–642.Google Scholar
Rood, L., Roelofs, J., Bogels, S. M., Nolen-Hoeksema, S. and Schouten, E. (2009). The influence of emotion-focused rumination and distraction on depressive symptoms in non-clinical youth: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 29, 607–616.Google Scholar
Schmidt, N. B., Keough, M. E., Mitchell, M. A., Reynolds, E. K., Macpherson, L., Zvolensky, M. J., et al. (2010). Anxiety sensitivity: prospective prediction of anxiety among early adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 24, 503–508.Google Scholar
Schmidt, N. B., Lerew, D. R. and Joiner, T. E. (1998). Anxiety sensitivity and the pathogenesis of anxiety and depression: evidence for symptom specificity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 165–177.Google Scholar
Segerstrom, S., Tsao, J. I., Alden, L. and Craske, M. (2000). Worry and rumination: repetitive thought as a concomitant and predictor of negative mood. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 24, 671–688.Google Scholar
Silverman, W., Fleisig, W., Rabian, B. and Peterson, R. (1991). Childhood anxiety sensitivity index. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 20, 162–168.Google Scholar
Spence, S. H. (1998). A measure of anxiety symptoms among children. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 545–566.Google Scholar
Taylor, S., Koch, W. J., Woody, S. and McLean, P. (1996). Anxiety sensitivity and depression: how are they related? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105, 474–479.Google Scholar
Verstraeten, K., Bijttebier, P., Vasey, M. W. and Raes, F. (2011). Specificity of worry and rumination in the development of anxiety and depressive symptoms in children. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50, 364–378. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/014466510´532715 Google Scholar
Weems, C. F., Hammond-Laurence, K., Silverman, W. K. and Ferguson, C. (1997). The relation between anxiety sensitivity and depression in children and adolescents referred for anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 961–966.Google Scholar
Wright, K., Asmundson, G., McCreary, D., Stewart, S., McLaughlin, E., Comeau, M., et al. (2010). Confirmatory factor analysis of the childhood anxiety sensitivity index: a gender comparison. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 39, 225–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.