Interpretation of Ambiguous Information in Girls at Risk for Depression

Overview

Journal J Abnorm Child Psychol

Publisher Springer

Date 2008 Aug 6

PMID 18679791

Citations 54

Authors

Karen F Dearing

Ian H Gotlib

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Research has consistently documented that depressed individuals process information in a negatively biased manner. There is little evidence, however, concerning whether these biases represent risk factors for depression, as is hypothesized by cognitive models. In the present study we investigated whether a particular cognitive bias observed in currently depressed individuals, the tendency to interpret ambiguous information negatively, characterizes daughters of depressed mothers, a population known to be at increased risk for depression. Following a negative mood induction, young daughters of depressed and never-disordered mothers completed two information-processing tasks in which their interpretations of emotionally ambiguous stimuli were evaluated. Daughters of depressed mothers interpreted ambiguous words more negatively and less positively, and ambiguous stories more negatively, than did daughters of never-disordered mothers. These results provide support for cognitive vulnerability models of depression.

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