Research suggests that genetic variants linked to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis functioning moderate the association between environmental stressors and depression, but examining ...gene-environment interactions with single polymorphisms limits power. The current study used a multilocus genetic profile score (MGPS) approach to measuring HPA-axis-related genetic variation and examined interactions with acute stress, chronic stress, and childhood adversity (assessed using contextual threat interview methods) with depressive symptoms as outcomes in an adolescent sample (ages 14-17, N = 241; White subsample n = 192). Additive MGPSs were calculated using 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms within HPA-axis genes (CRHR1, NR3C2, NR3C1, FKBP5). Higher MGPS directly correlated with adolescent depressive symptoms. Moreover, MGPS predicted stronger associations between acute and chronic stress and adolescent depressive symptoms and also moderated the effect of interpersonal, but not noninterpersonal, childhood adversity. Gene-environment interactions individually accounted for 5%-8% of depressive symptom variation. All results were retained following multiple test correction and stratification by race. Results suggest that using MGPSs provides substantial power to examine gene-environmental interactions linked to affective outcomes among adolescents.
Research has linked depression to maladaptive variants of support seeking, including co-rumination (CR) and excessive reassurance seeking (ERS), which may contribute to symptom onset and maintenance. ...Although both CR and ERS are associated with depression, insufficient research has examined how daily behaviors and experiences interact with trait-level CR and ERS to predict daily mood. Fifty-one undergraduates, over-selected for internalizing symptoms, completed baseline assessments, followed by a 14-day daily diary assessing behaviors, stressors, and mood. Daily problem-related talk was associated with elevations in depressed mood for participants with high (but not low) trait CR, particularly for those with major depression. Trait ERS similarly moderated the association between daily reassurance seeking and depressed mood. CR, ERS, and daily reassurance seeking each predicted greater affective reactivity to daily stressors. Results align with daily processes hypothesized by CR and ERS models, and suggest that both constructs may be best understood within a diathesis-stress framework. Adapted from the source document.
Rumination has been conceptualized as a stable, trait-level response style involving repetitive and passive focus on the symptoms of distress and the possible causes and consequences of those ...symptoms. This theoretical review examines developmental risk factors of ruminative response style, incorporating a developmental psychopathology perspective. A model integrating these developmental factors within a conceptual framework is proposed, wherein risk factors for distress (i.e., temperamental negative affectivity, stressful environments, parenting, and genetic vulnerability) lead to engagement in rumination. We propose that when rumination is well-practiced, it will consolidate into a trait-like response style, especially among adolescents who experience cognitive control deficits. Reciprocal relationships and moderators that may contribute to the formation of a ruminative response style are also included. To understand how these factors converge and influence the formation of ruminative response styles, we review patterns of stability and change in physical and cognitive development to demonstrate that individual differences in rumination may emerge and consolidate into enduring, trait-level response styles during early adolescence.
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•This review examines the developmental risk factors of ruminative response style.•A model integrating these factors within a conceptual framework is proposed.•Risk factors for distress lead to engagement in rumination.•When rumination is well-practiced, it will consolidate into a trait-like response style.•This is especially true among adolescents who experience cognitive control deficits.
•Explored diurnal cortisol slope, an important predictor of health outcomes.•HPA-axis multilocus genetic profile moderated link between chronic stress and slope.•Genetic profile predicted stronger ...links between chronic stress and mood/ fatigue.•Slope differentially mediated stress-mood/fatigue link as function of genetic risk.
Chronic stress exposure has been shown to alter hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning, which may mediate its effects on psychopathology and negative health outcomes. The nature of the chronic stress-HPA axis dysregulation is unclear and individuals likely vary in the extent to and manner in which indices of HPA axis regulation, such as diurnal cortisol slope, are influenced by chronic stress. We examined whether HPA-axis-linked genetic variation moderates the association between chronic stress and diurnal cortisol slope, and potential implications for mood and fatigue (possible manifestations of negative clinical outcomes). 211 adolescents (M age 15.89, 54.5% female) completed chronic stress interviews and provided DNA samples. Participants then provided saliva samples at waking and 12 h post-waking for two consecutive weekdays. HPA-axis genetic variation was calculated using a multilocus genetic profile score (MGPS) approach, using ten SNPs from CRHR1, NR3C1, NR3C2, and FKBP5 to generate an additive score of HPA-axis-linked genetic risk. Neither chronic stress nor MGPS directly predicted diurnal slope, but MGPS moderated the association between chronic stress and diurnal slope, with stress predicting a high waking cortisol followed by steep slope among youth with low but not high MGPS scores. MGPS also interacted with chronic stress to predict both negative affect and fatigue, and moderated the indirect effect of chronic stress on mood and fatigue via diurnal slope. Results suggest that diurnal cortisol regulation may be one mechanism by which genetic risk intensifies the association between chronic stress and negative outcomes.
Research suggests that anxiety disorders tend to temporally precede depressive disorders, a finding potentially relevant to understanding comorbidity. The current study used diary methods to ...determine whether daily anxious mood also temporally precedes daily depressed mood. 55 participants with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and history of depressive symptoms completed a 21-day daily diary tracking anxious and depressed mood. Daily anxious and depressed moods were concurrently associated. Daily anxious mood predicted later depressed mood at a variety of time lags, with significance peaking at a two-day lag. Depressed mood generally did not predict later anxious mood. Results suggest that the temporal antecedence of anxiety over depression extends to daily symptoms in GAD. Implications for the refinement of comorbidity models, including causal theories, are discussed.
► Studies suggest that anxiety disorders tend to temporally precede depression. ► Temporal associations between symptoms within disorders remain unclear. ► We explore sequencing of daily symptoms within generalized anxiety disorder. ► Anxious mood strongly predicted later depressed mood, but not vice versa. ► Anxious mood was most strongly predictive of depressed mood at a two-day lag.
Objectives
Although studies support a direct association between parent and child emotion regulation, little work has considered potential mechanisms, such as family context. For example, parents who ...have difficulty regulating their emotions may be more likely to adopt an authoritarian parenting style, especially under high family chronic stress, and this parenting style may then influence children’s development of emotion regulation. The current study examined authoritarian parenting style as a potential mechanism of the intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation. We also examined how maternal emotion regulation and family chronic stress interact to influence parenting behaviors.
Methods
A total of 218 mother-adolescent dyads (
M
age = 15.5 years, 55% female) were recruited from the community and assessed using a mix of self-report measures of emotion dysregulation and parenting style, and interview-based measures of family chronic stress.
Results
Results showed maternal emotion dysregulation predicted authoritarian parenting style that, in turn, predicted adolescent emotion dysregulation, with a significant indirect effect. Family chronic stress strengthened the association between maternal emotion dysregulation and authoritarian parenting style, such that the indirect effect of maternal emotion regulation on adolescent emotion regulation via authoritarian parenting style was stronger at high levels of chronic stress.
Conclusions
Results suggest that authoritarian parenting style and family chronic stress serve as important factors in the intergenerational transmission of emotion regulation.
Depressive rumination has been strongly linked to the development and maintenance of depression; however, less attention has been paid to ruminative processes in response to positive affect, and ...fewer have examined these processes in daily life. The current study sought to address these gaps by exploring depressive rumination and two forms of responses to positive affect,
dampening
and
positive rumination
, under ecologically valid conditions using daily diary methodology. One hundred fifty-seven young adults completed 14-day end-of-day diaries assessing positive affect and depressive symptoms in relation to depressive rumination, responses to positive affect, and daily positive and negative events. Daily depressive rumination predicted stronger associations between negative events and daily depressive symptoms. Higher daily dampening was associated with higher daily depressive symptoms and decreased positive affect and predicted lower associations between daily positive events and improvements in mood (including reduced daily positive affect and increased daily depressive symptoms). Higher daily positive rumination was negatively associated with daily depressive symptoms and interacted with daily positive events such that positive rumination had a greater impact on depressed mood on days when positive experiences were low. Results indicate that both depressive rumination and responses to positive affect play a role in influencing daily mood and depressive symptoms.
The current research proposes that certain anxiety response styles (specifically, responding to anxiety symptoms with rumination or hopeless cognitions) may increase risk of depressive symptoms, ...contributing to anxiety-depression comorbidity. We delineate preliminary evidence for this model in three studies. In Study 1, controlling for anxiety response styles significantly reduced the association between anxiety and depressive symptoms in an undergraduate sample. In Study 2, these findings were replicated controlling for conceptually related variables, and anxiety interacted with anxiety response styles to predict greater depressive symptoms. In Study 3, anxiety response styles moderated the prospective association between anxiety and later depression in a generalized anxiety disorder sample. Results support a role for anxiety response styles in anxiety-depression co-occurrence, and show that hopeless/ruminative anxiety response styles can be measured with high reliability and convergent and divergent validity.
Summary Maternal depression serves as a potent source of stress among offspring, greatly enhancing the risk of numerous adverse outcomes including youth depression. Several factors moderate the ...transmission of depression from mothers to offspring. However, the role of genetic characteristics in this process merits further exploration. Consistent with an interpersonal perspective on depression, the present study focused on a genetic polymorphism that has been shown to be relevant to social functioning, the rs53576 polymorphism of the oxytocin receptor gene ( OXTR ). In a community sample of 441 youth, OXTR genotype moderated the association between maternal depression in early childhood and youth depressive symptoms in adolescence, such that youth possessing at least one A allele of OXTR who also had a history of maternal depression exhibited the highest levels of depressive symptoms at age 15. In order to explore possible interpersonal mediators of this effect, conditional process analyses examined the role of youth social functioning in adolescence. Results suggest that OXTR genotype may partially account for the transmission of maternal depression to youth and support the role of dysfunctional social processes as a mechanism through which OXTR influences the development of depressive symptoms.
Objective
Despite proliferation of laboratory‐based studies examining reward functioning in depression, few studies have examined these processes in everyday life. We addressed this shortcoming by ...exploring experience and anticipation of uplifting experiences under ecologically valid conditions
Method
One hundred fifty‐seven young adults, oversampled for depressive symptoms, completed a 14‐day diary tracking mood in relation to recent and anticipated positive events
Results
Consistent with studies supporting “mood‐brightening” effects in depression, participants with greater baseline dysphoria showed stronger associations between elevated daily uplifts and lower daily depressive symptoms, particularly when events were interpersonal in nature. Baseline dysphoria was associated with lower daily anticipation of positive next‐day experiences; however, when dysphoric individuals did anticipate positive experiences, they experienced greater reductions in depressed mood
Conclusion
Results suggest that despite reward processing deficits found in laboratory studies, dysphoric individuals show improvements in mood in conjunction with anticipation and consumption of uplifting events in daily life.
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