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The Hopelessness Theory of Depression: A Prospective Multi-Wave Test of the Vulnerability-Stress Hypothesis

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Abstract

The hopelessness theory of depression’s (Abramson et al. (1989). Psychological Review, 96, 358–372) cognitive vulnerability-stress hypothesis was tested using data from a 6-week longitudinal study of university undergraduates. Participants completed measures of negative inferential style, negative events, and depressive symptoms at the initial assessment and measures of negative events and depressive symptoms each week for the next 6 weeks. Supporting the vulnerability-stress hypothesis, results of hierarchical linear modeling indicated that inferential styles moderated the relation between weekly negative events and weekly variations in depressive symptom levels. Specifically, participants with negative inferential styles who also experienced high levels of negative events in a given week reported the greatest increases in depressive symptoms during that week. Although we also found that depressive symptoms prospectively predicted changes in negative events from week to week, inferential styles did not moderate this relation.

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Notes

  1. Given that Hammen’s (1991, 1992) stress-generation model focuses primarily on negative interpersonal events, we also conducted this analysis focusing on interpersonal events from the Hassles Scale (e.g., intimacy, family-related obligations, health or well-being of a family member). The results of this analysis were virtually identical to those obtained when all of events from the Hassles Scale were included.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported in part by a pilot grant from the Center for Developmental Psychobiology, Binghamton University, and by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant HD048664 awarded to the first author.

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Correspondence to Brandon E. Gibb.

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An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, New Orleans, 2004.

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Gibb, B.E., Beevers, C.G., Andover, M.S. et al. The Hopelessness Theory of Depression: A Prospective Multi-Wave Test of the Vulnerability-Stress Hypothesis. Cogn Ther Res 30, 763–772 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9082-1

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