Association of Reactivity of Explanatory Flexibility and Ruminative Brooding in a Mood-Priming Paradigm to Depressive Symptoms: Six Month Follow-Up Michael T. Moore & David M. Fresco, Kent State University ABSTRACT Current thinking in the area of depressogenic attributional style posits that this class of cognitive vulnerability factor is latent until activated by stressful life events or temporary negative mood states (Persons & Miranda, 1992). Research has shown that attributional style, measured when primed, and negative life events are better predictors of depressed mood several days later than either alone, or unprimed attributional style (Abela & Brozina, 20034). The current investigation sought to evaluate the hypothesis of whether the interaction between both cognitive reactivity (of explanatory flexibility and ruminative brooding) after a mood priming challenge and intervening negative life events can predict depressed mood assessed six months after the mood prime. Participants were given measures of depressive symptoms both before and after a negative mood prime that prior research has shown capable of inducing temporary negative affect (Segal, et al., 1998). These same participants were then followed-up six months later and given the same measures of depressive symptoms. The interaction of the reactivity of explanatory flexibility to the mood prime and negative life events significantly predicted depressive symptoms at follow-up, and approached Cohen’s (1992) convention for a large effect ( f2 =.28). The interaction of the reactivity of ruminative brooding did not significantly predict depressive symptoms, however this finding corresponded to a medium effect ( f2 =.11). INTRODUCTION Explanatory flexibility and pessimistic brooding represent recent advancements from two well-established cognitive behavioral theories of depression. Explanatory flexibility refers to how flexible or rigid individuals are at assigning causes to events (Fresco & Craighead, 2003). Individuals who view each situation separately and contextually are regarded as flexible. Fresco and Craighead (2003) operationalized explanatory flexibility as the standard deviation of an individual’s responses to the stable and global items for negative events from the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson et al., 1982). A large standard deviation represents flexibility whereas a small standard deviation represents rigidity. In this way, explanatory flexibility arises from the theoretical tradition of the learned helplessness and hopelessness theories of depression (Abramson et al., 1978; 1989) and is conceptually related to–but statistically distinct from explanatory style (the tendency to see negative events arising from internal, stable and global causes). Depressive rumination is the tendency to focus attention perseveratively on the causes, experience, and consequences of depressed mood and has been associated with the onset (Just & Alloy, 1997), course (Kuehner & Weber, 1999), and duration of depressed mood (Just & Alloy, 1997). Brooding represents a psychometric refinement of depressive rumination to address concerns that earlier factor solutions were confounded with the measurement of depressive symptomatology. Treynor, Gonzalez, and Nolen-Hoeksema (2003) eliminated items from the rumination subscale of the Response Styles Questionnaire related to the symptoms of depression and developed a non-affectively confounded two-factor (brooding and pondering) solution for the RSQ in which brooding was shown to be more strongly associated with depressed mood than was pondering. The factor structure was subsequently replicated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in both general college student and a college student sample of individuals endorsing cognitive vulnerability to depression (Fresco et al., 2004). Support for the brooding and pondering solution was also found in a sample of currently and previously depressed adults (Haigh et al., 2004). A preliminary version of the current study (Fresco et al., 2003) examined the effects of an emotion evocation challenge on these two constructs before and immediately after mood induction and six weeks later. The sample consisted of 59 college students, 18 of whom met diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder. Findings revealed that mood reactivity irrespective of diagnostic status was associated with reduced explanatory flexibility but not with higher brooding scores following the emotion evocation challenge. Rather, brooding scores remained stable as a function of the mood priming challenge. Further, residual change in explanatory flexibility and post-induction brooding significantly predicted subsequent levels of depression symptoms. Also, residual change in explanatory flexibility moderated the association of intervening negative life events and subsequent depression. The current investigation sought to further extend the findings of Fresco, Moore et al. (2003) by assessing the association between reactivity in explanatory flexibility and brooding to mood in this six-month follow-up. METHODS Participants 59 undergraduate students 31% male, 69% female Participants ranged from years of age (M = 19.23, SD = 1.73) Measures Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson, et al., 1982) Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979) Life Experiences Survey (LES; Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978) Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ; Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991) DISCUSSION These findings support our hypothesis that reactivity in explanatory flexibility and brooding following an emotion evocation challenge is predictive of subsequent depressive symptoms: Individuals who become rigid in their ability to explain causes to events in their lives in response to negative mood are more likely to develop more long- term depressive symptoms when faced with negative life events Individuals who tend to maladaptively ruminate in response to negative mood are also more likely to develop depressive symptoms when faced with negative life events Use of emotion evocation challenges may represent a psychological “stress test” useful in identifying individuals vulnerable to future emotional upheaval Limitations Participants consisted of relatively high- functioning college students, resulting in uncertain generalizability to the general public Attrition between the mood induction and follow-up assessment resulted in small sample size and questionable external validity Future Studies Replicating the current study utilizing a more representative population RESULTS A series of two hierarchical, set-wise regression analysis were conducted to assess the relationship of explanatory and brooding reactivity, intervening negative life events, and their interaction, to levels of depressive symptoms at follow-up. In regression 1, depressive symptoms at follow-up served as the dependent variable, while pre-induction depressive symptoms (entered in Step 1), residual change in explanatory flexibility from pre- to post-mood induction (Step 2), intervening negative life events (Step 3), and the interaction between flexibility and negative life events (Step 4) served as predictors. The residual flexibility x negative life events interaction significantly added to the prediction of depressive symptoms, ΔF(1,19) = 5.37, p =.03, f 2 =.28, and approached the convention for a large effect In regression 2, depressive symptoms at follow-up again served as the dependent variable, while pre-induction depressive symptoms (Step 1), post-induction brooding (Step 2), intervening negative life events (Step 3), and the interaction between brooding and negative life events (Step 4) served as predictors. The results are as follows: Although the post-induction brooding x negative life events interaction did not significantly add to the prediction of depressive symptoms, ΔF(1,19) = 1.41, ns, f 2 =.10, the effect size approached the convention for a medium effect Analysis of Partial Variance was again utilized to interpret the post-induction brooding x negative life events interaction, again examining residual change in depression as the criterion and High and Low Brooding and Negative Life Events as the predictor variables. RESULTS A series of two hierarchical, set-wise regression analysis were conducted to assess the relationship of explanatory and brooding reactivity, intervening negative life events, and their interaction, to levels of depressive symptoms at follow-up. In regression 1, depressive symptoms at follow-up served as the dependent variable, while pre-induction depressive symptoms (entered in Step 1), residual change in explanatory flexibility from pre- to post-mood induction (Step 2), intervening negative life events (Step 3), and the interaction between flexibility and negative life events (Step 4) served as predictors. The residual flexibility x negative life events interaction significantly added to the prediction of depressive symptoms, ΔF(1,19) = 5.37, p =.03, f 2 =.28, and approached the convention for a large effect In regression 2, depressive symptoms at follow-up again served as the dependent variable, while pre-induction depressive symptoms (Step 1), post-induction brooding (Step 2), intervening negative life events (Step 3), and the interaction between brooding and negative life events (Step 4) served as predictors. 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