Abstract
Given evidence that negative inferential styles contribute vulnerability to both symptoms and diagnoses of depression, it becomes important to examine factors that may contribute to the development of this cognitive vulnerability. The primary goal of the current studies was to test the hypotheses that experiences of emotional abuse from parents and verbal victimization from peers would contribute to negative changes in children’s inferential styles as well as increases in their depressive symptoms. We found support for these hypotheses among children of parents with a history of depression (Study 1) and among an unselected community sample of children (Study 2). These results add to the growing body of research suggesting the role of emotional abuse and verbal victimization in the development of depressive cognitions and symptoms.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In contrast to the reformulated theory of learned helplessness (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978), which defined cognitive vulnerability as the tendency to attribute negative events to internal, stable, and global causes, the hopelessness theory focuses on the stability and globality dimensions and de-emphasizes the internality dimension of causal attributions. Although the hopelessness theory does hypothesize that the tendency to infer negative self-characteristics following the occurrence of negative events will also increase risk for depression, this is distinct from making internal attributions for the causes of events. Specifically, inferences regarding self-characteristics focus specifically on the consequences of the event, not its causes.
We should note that the pattern of results reported below was identical to that obtained when the analyses were limited to participants with complete data.
The pattern of results reported below was identical to that obtained when the analyses were limited to participants with complete data.
References
Abela, J. R. Z. (2001). The hopelessness theory of depression: A test of the diathesis-stress and causal mediation components in third and seventh grade children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 241–254.
Abela, J. R. Z., Hankin, B. L., Haigh, E. A. P., Vinokuroff, T., Trayhern, L., & Adams, P., (2005). Interpersonal vulnerability to depressive episodes in high risk children: The role of insecure attachment and reassurance seeking. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34, 182–192.
Abela, J. R. Z., Skitch, S. A., Auerbach, R. P., & Adams, P. (2005). The impact of borderline personality disorder on vulnerability to depression in children of affectively-ill parents. Journal of Personality Disorders, 19, 65–79.
Abela, J. R. Z., & Payne, A. V. L. (2003). A test of the integration of the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression in schoolchildren. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 519–535.
Abela, J. R. Z., & Sarin, S. (2002). Cognitive vulnerability to hopelessness depression: A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 26, 811–829.
Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358–372.
Abramson, L. Y. Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49–74.
Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Smith, J. M., Gibb, B. E., & Neeren, A. (2006). Developmental antecedents of unipolar and bipolar disorders: Role of parenting and maltreatment histories. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 9, 23–64.
Bernstein, D. P., Ahluvalia, T., Pogge, D., & Handelsman, L. (1997). Validity of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire in an adolescent psychiatric population. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 340–348.
Bernstein, D. P., Fink, L., Handelsman, L., Foote, J., Lovejoy, M., Wenzel, K., Sapareto, E., & Ruggiero, J. (1994). Initial reliability and validity of a new retrospective measure of child abuse and neglect. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 1132–1136.
Bernstein, D. P., Stein, J. A., Newcomb, M. D., Walker, E., Pogge, D., Ahluvalia, T., Stokes, J., Handelsman, L., Medrano, M., Desmond, D., & Zule, W. (2003). Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Child Abuse and Neglect, 27, 169–190.
Bolger, K. E., & Patterson, C. J. (2001). Developmental pathways from child maltreatment to peer rejection. Child Development, 72, 549–568.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analyses for the behavioral sciences. (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanism in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101.
Dobkin, R. D., Panzarella, C., Fernandez, J., Alloy, L. B., & Cascardi, M. (2004). Adaptive inferential feedback, depressogenic inferences, and depressed mood: A laboratory study of the expanded hopelessness theory of depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 487–509.
First, M. B., Gibbon, M., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (2001). Structured clinical interview for the DSM-VI-TR Axis I disorders, research version, patient edition with psychotic screen. New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Gibb, B. E., Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (2004). Emotional maltreatment by parents, verbal peer victimization, and cognitive vulnerability to depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 1–21.
Gibb, B. E., & Alloy, L. B. (2006). A prospective test of the hopelessness theory of depression in children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35, 264–274.
Gibb, B. E., Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., & Marx, B. P. (2003). Childhood maltreatment and maltreatment-specific inferences: A test of Rose and Abramson’s (1992) extension of the hopelessness theory. Cognition and Emotion, 17, 917–931.
Gibb, B. E., Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Rose, D. T., Whitehouse, W. G., Donovan, P., Hogan, M. E., Cronholm, J., & Tierney, S. (2001). History of childhood maltreatment, depressogenic cognitive style, and episodes of depression in adulthood. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 425–446.
Gibb, B. E., Butler, A. C., & Beck, J. S. (2003). Childhood abuse, depression, and anxiety in adult psychiatric outpatients. Depression and Anxiety, 17, 226–228.
Gibb, B. E., Chelminski, I., & Zimmerman, M. (in press). Childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and diagnoses of depressive and anxiety disorders in adult psychiatric outpatients. Depression and Anxiety.
Gibb, B. E., & Coles, M. E. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability-stress models of psychopathology: A developmental perspective. In B. L. Hankin, & J. R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of psychopathology: A vulnerability-stress perspective (pp. 104–135). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hankin, B. L. (2005). Childhood maltreatment and psychopathology: Prospective tests of attachment, cognitive vulnerability, and stress as mediating processes. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29, 645–671.
Hankin, B. L., & Abela, J. R. Z. (2005). Depression from childhood through adolescence and adulthood: A developmental vulnerability and stress perspective. In B. L. Hankin, & J. R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of psychopathology: A vulnerability-stress perspective (pp. 104–135). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kovacs, M. (1981). Rating scales to assess depression in school-aged children. Acta Paedopsychiatrica, 46, 305–315.
Kovacs, M. (1985). The Children’s Depression Inventory. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 21, 995–998.
Little, R. J. A., & Rubin, D. B. (1987). Statistical analysis with missing data. New York: Wiley.
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.
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.
Rose, D. T., & Abramson, L. Y. (1992). Developmental predictors of depressive cognitive style: Research and theory. In D. Cicchetti, &S. Toth (Eds.), Rochester symposium of developmental psychopathology, Vol. IV (pp. 323–349). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147–177.
Scher, C. D., Stein, M. B., Asmundson, G. J. G., McCreary, D. R., & Forde, D. R. (2001). The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire in a community sample: Psychometric properties and normative data. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 14, 843–857.
Seligman, M. E. P., Peterson, C., Kaslow, N. J., Tenenbaum, R. L., Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1984). Attributional style and depressive symptoms among children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 235–241.
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.
Stone, N. (1993). Parental abuse as a precursor to childhood onset depression and suicidality. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 24, 13–24.
Acknowledgement
This project was supported in part by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant HD048664 awarded to B. E. Gibb and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award to J. R. Z. Abela.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gibb, B.E., Abela, J.R.Z. Emotional Abuse, Verbal Victimization, and the Development of Children’s Negative Inferential Styles and Depressive Symptoms. Cogn Ther Res 32, 161–176 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9106-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9106-x