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Reciprocal Relations Between Depressive Symptoms and Self-Criticism (but Not Dependency) Among Early Adolescent Girls (but Not Boys)

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Abstract

Recent criticism of theories of personality vulnerability to depression posits that personality may be an outcome, rather than a cause, of depressive symptoms. In this study, we address this criticism, focusing on the personality dimensions of dependency and self-criticism (S. J. Blatt & D. C. Zuroff, 1992). Dependency, self-criticism, and depressive symptoms were assessed twice over a 1-year interval in a large sample of early adolescent girls and boys. A vulnerability model, in which dependency and self-criticism influence depressive symptoms, was contrasted with a “scar” model, in which depressive symptoms influence dependency and self-criticism, and with a reciprocal causality model, in which both constructs influence each other over time. Cross-lagged analyses using structural equation modeling supported a reciprocal causality model involving self-criticism (but not dependency) among girls (but not boys). Results suggest that in early adolescence, girls' self-criticism and depressive symptoms contribute to a vicious phenomenological cycle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

    Golan Shahar & Sidney J. Blatt

  2. Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    David C. Zuroff

  3. Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia

    Gabriel P. Kuperminc

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

    Bonnie J. Leadbeater

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  1. Golan Shahar
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  2. Sidney J. Blatt
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  3. David C. Zuroff
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  4. Gabriel P. Kuperminc
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  5. Bonnie J. Leadbeater
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Correspondence to Golan Shahar.

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Shahar, G., Blatt, S.J., Zuroff, D.C. et al. Reciprocal Relations Between Depressive Symptoms and Self-Criticism (but Not Dependency) Among Early Adolescent Girls (but Not Boys). Cognitive Therapy and Research 28, 85–103 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:COTR.0000016932.82038.d0

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