Problem-solving orientation and attributional style: Moderators of the impact of negative life events on the development of depressive symptoms in adolescence?

Abstract

Followed up 733 adolescents, ages 12 to 14 years, from a community sample over a 1-year period. Depressive symptoms at 1-year follow-up, controlling for baseline depression levels, were predicted by negative life events (NLEs) in the previous 12 months, attributional style (AS), negative problem solving orientation (NPSO), and the interaction between NLEs and NPSO. In the presence, but not absence, of high NLEs, NPSO predicted increases in depressive symptoms. In contrast, pessimistic AS predicted future increases in depression irrespective of the occurrence of NLEs. The findings supported a cognitive diathesis-stress model of the development of depression for NPSO but not AS.