Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T20:44:48.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Characterological and behavioral self-blame in children: Assessment and development considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

David A. Cole ,
Lachlan G. Peeke  and
Chris Ingold
David A. Cole*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Lachlan G. Peeke
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Chris Ingold
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
*
David A. Cole, University of Notre Dame, Dept. of Psychology, Notre Dame, IN 46556.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A new instrument, the Why It Happened questionnaire, was developed for assessing characterological and behavior self-blame in two samples of third- through ninth-grade children (Sample 1: n = 121; sample 2: n = 322). Children's responses were very consistent within specific classes of negative events but only moderately consistent across time. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of open-ended and self-rating responses, respectively, revealed that children's self-blame attributions were only moderately consistent across different classes of negative events, and that children's tendency to make characterological and behavioral attributions were unrelated for academic events and moderately correlated for social events. Multiple regression revealed that characterological self-blame about academic and social events were not significantly related to self-reported depression until ninth grade. Implications for cognitive diathesis-stress models of depression for children are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Spring 1996 , pp. 381 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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

Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, C. A., Horowitz, L. M., & French, R. D. (1983). Attributional style of lonely and depressed people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 127–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, C. A., Jennings, D. L., & Arnoult, L. H. (1988). Validity and utility of the attributional style construct at a moderate level of specificity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 979–990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asarnow, J. R., & Bates, S. (1988). Depression in child psychiatric patients: Cognitive and attributional patterns. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 601–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1972). Depression: Causes and treatment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Beneson, J. F., & Dweck, C. S. (1986). The development of trait explanations and self-evaluations in the academic and social domains. Child Development, 57, 1179–1187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berstein, I. H., & Teng, G. (1989). Factoring items and factoring scales are different: Spurious evidence for multidimensionality. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 467–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blechman, E. A., McEnroe, M. J., Carrella, E. T., & Audette, D. P. (1986). Childhood competence and depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 223–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural equations with latent variables. New York: John Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bollen, K., & Lennox, R. (1991). Conventional wisdom on measurement: A structural equation perspective. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 305–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borden, K. B., Brown, R. T., Jenkins, P., & Clingerman, S. R. (1987). Achievement attributions and depressive symptoms in attention deficit-disordered and normal children. Journal of School Psychology, 25, 399–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryk, A. S., Raudenbush, S. W., Seltzer, M., & JrCongdon, R. T. (1988). An introduction to HLM: Computer program and users' guide (version 2.0). Chicago, IL: HLM Software.Google Scholar
Carey, C. H., Faulstich, M. E., Gresham, F. M., Ruggiero, L., & Enyart, P. (1987). Children's Depression Inventory: Construct and discriminant validity across clinical and nonreferred (control) populations. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 755–761.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coddington, R. D. (1972). The significance of life events as ctiologic factors in diseases of children: I. A survey of professional workers. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 16, 7–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, D. A., Martin, J. M., Powers, B., & Truglio, R. (in press). Modeling causal relations between academic and social competence and depression: A multitrait-multimethod longitudinal study of children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.Google Scholar
Cole, D. A., & JrTurner, J. E. (1993). Models of cognitive mediation and moderation in child depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 271–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutrona, C. E., Russell, D., & Jones, R. D. (1984). Cross-situational consistency in causal attributions: Does attributional style exist? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1043–1058.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, J. F., & Ahrens, A. H. (1992). Stress and attributional as predictors of self-reported depression in children. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 16, 623–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dweck, C. S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41, 1040–1048.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dweck, C. S., & Bempechat, J. (1983). Children's theories of intelligence: Consequences for learning. In Paris, S., Olson, G., & Stevenson, H. (Eds.), Learning and motivation in theclassroom (pp. 239–255). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fincham, F. D., & Cain, K. M. (1986). Learned helplessness in humans: A developmental analysis. Developmental Review, 6, 301–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fincham, F. D., Diener, C. I., & Hokoda, A. (1987). Attributional style and learned helplessness: Relationship to the use of causal schemata and depressive symptoms in children. British Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammen, C., Adrian, C., & Hiroto, D. (1988). A longitudinal test of the attributional vulnerability model in children at risk for depression. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 27, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harter, S. (1985). Competence as a dimension of self-evaluation: Toward a comprehensive model of self-worth. In Leahy, R. (Ed.), The development of the self (pp. 55–122). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1979). Characterological versus behavioral self-blame: Inquiries into depression and rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1798–1809.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, J. H. (1986). Life events as stressors in childhood and adolescence. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörbom, D. (1989). LISREL 7 user's guide. Chicago: Scientific Software, Inc.Google Scholar
Kaslow, N. J., Tanenbaum, R. L., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1978). The KASTAN: A children's attributional style questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Kazdin, A. E., French, N. H., & Unis, A. S. (1983). Child, mother, and father evaluations of depression in psychiatric inpatient children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 11, 167–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kazdin, A. E., French, N. H., Unis, A. S., & Esveldt-Dawson, K. (1983). Assessment of childhood depression: Correspondence of child and parent ratings. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 22, 157–164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kovacs, M. (1981). Rating scales to assess depression in school-aged children. Acta Paedopsychiatry, 46, 305–315.Google ScholarPubMed
Kovacs, M. (1982). The Children's Depression Inventory: A self-rating depression scale for school-aged youngsters. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Kovacs, M. (1985). The Children's Depression Inventory. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 21, 995–998.Google ScholarPubMed
Leitenberg, H., Yost, L. W., & Carroll-Wilson, M., (1986). Negative cognitive errors in children: Questionnaire development, normative data, and comparisons between children with and without self-reported symptoms of depression, low self-esteem, and evaluation anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 54, 528–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lobovits, D., & Handal, P. (1985). Childhood depression: Prevalence using DSM-III criteria and validity of parent and child depression scales. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 10, 45–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattison, R. E., Handiford, H. A., Kales, H. C., Goodman, A. L., & McLaughlin, R. E. (1990). Four-year predictive value of the Children's Depression Inventory. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2, 169–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, N. E., Dyck, D. G., & Petrinack, R. J. (1989). Cognitive appraisal and attributional correlates of depressive symptoms in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 325–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monroe, S. M., & Simons, A. D. (1991). Diathesis-stress theories in the context of life stress research: Implications for the depressive disorders. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 406–425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicholls, J. G. (1978). The development of the concepts of effort and ability, perceptions of academic attainment, and the understanding that difficult tasks require more ability. Child Development, 49, 800–814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, J. G. (1984). Achievement motivation: Conceptions of ability, subjective experience, task choice, and performance. Psychological Review, 91, 328–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Girgus, J. S., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1986). Learned helplessness in children: A longitudinal study of depression, achievement, and explanatory style. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 435–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Girgus, J. S., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1992). Predictors and consequences of childhood depressive symptoms: A 5-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 405–422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Panak, W. F., & Garber, J. (1992). Role of aggression, rejection, and attributions in the prediction of depression in children. Development and Psycho-pathology, 4, 145–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, G. R., & Stoolmiller, M. (1991). Replications of a dual failure model for boy's depressed mood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 491–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C., Schwartz, S. M., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1981). Self-blame and depressive symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 253–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robbins, C. J., & Hinkley, K. (1989). Social-cognitive processing and depressive symptoms in children: A comparison of measures. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 29–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez, C. M., & Routh, D. K. (1989). Depression, anxiety, and attributional style in learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 18, 299–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogosa, D. R. (1988). Myths about longitudinal research. In Schaie, K. W., Campbell, R. T., Meredith, W., & Rawlings, S. C. (Eds.), Methodological issues in aging research (pp. 171–209). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Rogosa, D. R., Brandt, D., & Zimowski, M. (1982). A growth curve approach to the measurement of change. Psychological Bulletin, 90, 726–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogosa, D. R., & Willett, J. B. (1985). Understanding correlates of change by modeling individual differences in growth. Psychometrika, 50, 203–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saylor, C. F., Finch, A. J., Spirito, A., & Bennett, B. (1984). The Children's Depression Inventory: A systematic evaluation of psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 52, 955–967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seligman, M. E. P., Peterson, C., Kaslow, N. J., Tanenbaum, R. L., Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1984). Attributional style and depressive symptoms in children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 235–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelton, M. R., & Garber, J. (1987, 08). Development and validation of children's pleasant and unpleasant events schedule. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, New York.Google Scholar
Smucker, M. R., Craighead, W. E., Craighead, L. W., & Green, B. J. (1986). Normative and reliability data for the Children's Depression Inventory. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 14, 25–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoltz, R. F., & Galassi, J. P. (1989). Internal attributions and types of depression in college students: The learned helplessness model revisited. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 36, 316–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teasdale, J. D. (1983). Negative thinking in depression: Cause, effect, or reciprocal relationship? Advances in Behavior Research and Therapy, 5, 27–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, L. G., Friedlander, M. L., & Silverman, W. K. (1987). Children's depressive symptoms, negative self-statements, and causal attributions for success and failure. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 11, 215–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, J. R. (1980). Developmental change in perceived control: Recognizing noncontingency in the laboratory and perceiving it in the world. Developmental Psychology, 16, 385–390.Google Scholar
Weiss, J. R. (1981). Illusory contingency in children at the state fair. Developmental Psychology, 17, 481–489.Google Scholar
Worchel, F. F., Hughes, J. N., Hall, B. M., Stanton, S. B., Stanton, H., & Little, V. Z. (1990). Evaluation of subclinical depression in children using self-, peer-, and teacher-report methods. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18, 271–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahn-Waxler, C., Kochanska, A., Krupnick, J., & McKnew, D. (1990). Patterns of guilt in children of depressed and well mothers. Developmental Psychology, 26, 51–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar