Negative affectivity, depression, and anxiety: Does rumination mediate the links?

Abstract

Background: Negative affectivity (NA) is thought to be a vulnerability factor for depressive and anxiety symptoms; however, the mechanism through which this process takes place is yet to be fully ascertained. Rumination, a negative thought process, however, is believed a likely candidate in the association between NA and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Moreover, a thought-provoking advance in the understanding of rumination is the identification of a two-factor structure, with 'brooding' and 'reflection' as its subtypes. Thus, the present study sought to clarify the meditational effects of brooding and reflection in the relationships between NA and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Method: Self-report questionnaires tapping rumination, NA, and symptoms of depression and anxiety were administered to a sample of 77 psychiatric patients aged 30-40.

Results: In line with study expectations, brooding, reflection, NA, anxiety, and depressive symptoms correlated substantially with each other. Both, brooding and reflection completely mediated the association between NA and depressive symptoms; however, the relationship between NA and anxiety was not mediated by either brooding or reflection.

Limitations: The current study is limited in terms of its cross sectional nature, sample size, sample selection, and methods of assessment.

Conclusions: Despite these limitations, the present study demonstrated that a temperamental construct NA significantly predicts brooding and reflection and these in turn predict depressive symptoms but not anxiety. Thus, NA, a temperamental construct, may be more related to anxiety rather than depression.

Keywords: Anxiety; Brooding; Depression; Negative affectivity; Reflection; Rumination.