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Relation Between Attributional Style and Subsequent Depressive Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies

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Abstract

This meta-analysis examined the relation between attributional style and subsequent depressive symptoms. Results were based on 52 longitudinal studies comprising 57 samples involving 12,594 participants. A moderate correlation was found between depressogenic explanatory style of negative events and subsequent depressive symptoms. Controlling for prior depressive symptoms, the weighted mean effect of prior negative attributional style on subsequent depressive symptoms was small at β = .10. The relation between attributional style and subsequent depressive symptoms was not associated with moderators including publication status, attributional style measure, depression measure, delay between assessments, mean age, participant gender, and ethnicity.

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Conflict of Interest

Chiungjung Huang declares no conflict of interest.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (national and institutional). Informed consent was obtained from all individual subjects participating in the study.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors and no animals have been used.

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  1. Graduate Institute of Education, National Changhua University of Education, 1 Jinde Road, Changhua, 50058, Taiwan

    Chiungjung Huang

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  1. Chiungjung Huang
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Correspondence to Chiungjung Huang.

Appendix

Appendix

See Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Study selection flowchart

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Fig. 2
figure 2

Funnel plot for overall composite score for negative events

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Fig. 3
figure 3

Funnel plot for generality score for negative events

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Fig. 4
figure 4

Funnel plot for overall composite score for both positive and negative events

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Huang, C. Relation Between Attributional Style and Subsequent Depressive Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies. Cogn Ther Res 39, 721–735 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9700-x

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