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Hope is a Mediator Between Enhancing Attributional Style and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence

DOI:10.1007/s10578-023-01511-2
Authors:
Sandra Yu Rueger at Wheaton College Illinois
Sandra Yu Rueger
Jake Steggerda at Wheaton College Illinois
Jake Steggerda
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This study added to understanding of the recovery model of depression in adolescents by testing whether hope mediates the link between enhancing attributional style (EAS) and depression using two independent samples. Study 1 used cross-sectional data from 378 students (51% female) in fifth through seventh grade students. Study 2 used data from 546 (50% female) seventh and eighth grade students at two time points: January and May within the same year. Cross-sectional analyses indicated that EAS indirectly predicted depression. Cross-sectional and prospective analyses indicated that stable attributions, in particular, were associated with lower levels of depression through higher levels of hope. Notably, contrary to expectations, global attributions consistently predicted higher levels of depression. Results suggest that hope mediates the association between attributional stability for positive events and reductions in depression over time. The importance of investigating attributional dimensions is emphasized as implications and future research directions are discussed.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Child Psychiatry & Human Development
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01511-2
Attributional Style and Depression
Needles and Abramson’s recovery model from depression
suggests that individuals with an EAS are more likely to
experience remission from depression through a process of
increases in hope [7]. These researchers posited that indi-
viduals with depressive symptoms are most likely to emo-
tionally benet from the experience of positive life events if
they attribute stable (e.g., “The cause of this positive event
will continue into the future”) and global (e.g., “The cause
of this positive event will aect other areas in my life”)
attributions to those events. Needles and Abramson then
suggested that individuals with an EAS who experience
positive life events can recover from depression through
the process of regaining hopefulness. There is some empiri-
cal evidence that supports theory underlying the recovery
model as applied to children and adolescent populations
[8–10]. For example, some research has supported the asso-
ciation between EAS (i.e., stable, and global attributions
for positive events) as well as the more general positive
attributional style from the reformulated theory of learned
helplessness (i.e., internal, stable, and global attributions for
positive events; [11]) and lower depression [9, 10] and lower
hopelessness [10]. Further, a study focused on children and
adolescents in a psychiatric inpatient hospital found that
Adolescent depression is a signicant public health concern
with point prevalence rates of major depressive disorder
increasing in recent years from 8.7% to 2005 to 11.3% in
2014 [1]. Understanding predictors of depression in early
adolescence can inform prevention and early intervention
eorts that may prevent suering and impairment, not only
in adolescence [2–5] but also in adulthood [6]. Enhancing
attributional style (EAS; i.e., stable and global attributions
for positive events) [7] has been shown to be inversely asso-
ciated with depression in early adolescence [8–10]. Further,
early research demonstrated that reductions in depres-
sive symptoms involved increases in hope [8, 10]. A more
nuanced understanding of attributional style and hope as
predictive factors to depression can inform more eective
intervention eorts in early adolescence.
Both Dr. Sandra Yu Rueger and Dr. Jake C. Steggerda are contributed
equally.
Jake C. Steggerda
jcstegge@uark.edu
1 School of Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy,
Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, USA
2 Department of Psychological Sciences, University of
Arkansas, 72701 Fayetteville, AR, USA
Abstract
This study added to understanding of the recovery model of depression in adolescents by testing whether hope mediates
the link between enhancing attributional style (EAS) and depression using two independent samples. Study 1 used cross-
sectional data from 378 students (51% female) in fth through seventh grade students. Study 2 used data from 546 (50%
female) seventh and eighth grade students at two time points: January and May within the same year. Cross-sectional
analyses indicated that EAS indirectly predicted depression. Cross-sectional and prospective analyses indicated that stable
attributions, in particular, were associated with lower levels of depression through higher levels of hope. Notably, contrary
to expectations, global attributions consistently predicted higher levels of depression. Results suggest that hope mediates
the association between attributional stability for positive events and reductions in depression over time. The importance
of investigating attributional dimensions is emphasized as implications and future research directions are discussed.
Keywords Enhancing attributional style · Recovery model · Depression · Hope · Adolescents
Accepted: 14 February 2023
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
Hope is a Mediator Between Enhancing Attributional Style and
Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence
Sandra YuRueger1· Jake C.Steggerda2
1 3
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