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Brooding Rumination and Risk for Depressive Disorders in Children of Depressed Mothers

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Abstract

The goal of the current study was to examine the role of brooding rumination in children at risk for depression. We found that children of mothers with a history of major depression exhibited higher levels of brooding rumination than did children of mothers with no depression history. Examining potential mechanisms of this risk, we found no evidence for shared genetic influences (BDNF or 5-HTTLPR) or modeling of mothers’ rumination. However, we did find that children with a history of prior depressive disorders exhibited higher current levels of brooding rumination than children with no depression history. Importantly, children’s brooding predicted prospective onsets of new depressive episodes over a 20-month follow-up even when we statistically controlled for depressive symptom levels at the initial assessment, suggesting that the predictive effect of brooding rumination in children was not due simply to co-occurring depressive symptoms.

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Notes

  1. Children’s 5-HTTLPR and BDNF genotypes were also not significantly related to children’s lifetime depressive diagnoses or current depressive symptoms assessed at T1 nor did they predict depression onset during the follow-up

  2. Though not significant, we should note that the relation between children’s brooding rumination and their lifetime anxiety disorders was in the opposite direction from what may have been expected, such that children with a history of anxiety disorders had somewhat lower levels of brooding rumination (M = 8.72) than children with no anxiety disorder history (M = 10.07).

  3. Although we focus primarily on children’s levels of brooding rumination, we should also note that mothers’ levels of brooding rumination were also significantly related to their history of MDD, such that mothers with a history of MDD reported significantly higher levels of brooding rumination than mothers with no MDD history, F(1,98) = 24.36, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.20. Examining mothers with current MDD, past MDD, and no MDD separately, we found that each of the three groups differed significantly, F(2,97) = 17.42, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.26, with current MDD associated with the highest levels of brooding rumination (M = 14.41), followed by past MDD (M = 11.45), and then no MDD (M = 9.21). In contrast, mothers’ levels of brooding rumination were not significantly associated with their history of anxiety disorders, controlling for the influence of MDD history, F(2,97) = 2.72, p = 0.10, η p 2 = 0.03. We also examined potential links between brooding rumination and mothers’ BDNF and 5-HTTLPR genotypes. Although BDNF genotype was not significantly related to mothers’ levels of brooding rumination, F(1,97) = 1.90, p = 0.17, η p 2 = 0.02, brooding was significantly related to 5-HTTLPR genotype, F(2,96) = 3.50, p = 0.03, η p 2 = 0.07, with women carrying 2 copies of the 5-HTTLPR S or LG allele exhibiting significantly higher levels of brooding rumination (M = 11.82) than women carrying only 1 copy of these alleles (M = 10.48) or women homozygous for the LA allele (M = 9.68). This result, though consistent with other studies examining 5-HTTLPR and information-processing biases, should be interpreted with caution given that it was not replicated in the children, nor was it found in a previous sample of healthy adults (Beevers et al. 2009a).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Binghamton University (SUNY), Binghamton, NY, USA

    Brandon E. Gibb, Marie Grassia, Lindsey B. Stone & Dorothy J. Uhrlass

  2. Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Division of Behavioral Genetics, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    John E. McGeary

  3. Department of Psychology, Binghamton University (SUNY), Binghamton, NY, 13902-6000, USA

    Brandon E. Gibb

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  1. Brandon E. Gibb
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  2. Marie Grassia
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  3. Lindsey B. Stone
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  4. Dorothy J. Uhrlass
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  5. John E. McGeary
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Correspondence to Brandon E. Gibb.

Additional information

This project was supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grants HD048664 and HD057066 and by funding from the Center for Developmental Psychobiology, Binghamton University, awarded to B.E. Gibb, a Fahs-Beck Doctoral Dissertation Grant awarded to D.J. Uhrlass, as well as 1S10RR023457-01A1 and Shared equipment grants (ShEEP) from the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veteran Affairs awarded to J. E. McGeary. We would like to thank Sarah Crossett and Jessica Benas for their help in conducting assessments for this project.

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Gibb, B.E., Grassia, M., Stone, L.B. et al. Brooding Rumination and Risk for Depressive Disorders in Children of Depressed Mothers. J Abnorm Child Psychol 40, 317–326 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9554-y

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