Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T11:50:01.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Positive emotionality at age 3 predicts cognitive styles in 7-year-old children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

ELIZABETH P. HAYDEN
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Stony Brook
DANIEL N. KLEIN
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Stony Brook
C. EMILY DURBIN
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
THOMAS M. OLINO
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Stony Brook

Abstract

This study examined associations between temperament at age 3 and depressotypic cognitive styles at age 7 in a community sample of children. Sixty-four preschool aged children were assessed for positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) using a standardized battery of laboratory tasks and naturalistic home observations. At follow-up 4 years later, the children completed laboratory tasks designed to tap helplessness in social and problem-solving situations, positive and negative information-processing biases, and self-reports of attributional style. Lower PE at age 3 predicted greater helplessness in the interpersonal task and decreased positive schematic processing. There was little evidence for a relationship between NE and depressotypic cognitive styles. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that some portion of cognitive vulnerability to depression may stem from early-emerging differences in the expression of positive emotions.This work is based upon a dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of SUNY at Stony Brook by the first author. Portions of this work were supported by NIMH Research Grants RO1 MH45757 and RO1 MH069942. The authors acknowledge the consultation and support of Hill Goldsmith and Everett Waters, and the assistance of Cindy Huang, Grace Lee, Magda Kulesza, Suzanne Rose, and Jayanta Hegde for their help in data collection. Thanks also to the families who participated in this study.

Type
REGULAR ARTICLE
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 4974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Tashman, N. A., Berrebbi, D. A., Hogan, M. E., Whitehouse, W. G., et al. (2001). Developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression: Parenting, cognitive, and inferential feedback styles of the parents of individuals at high and low cognitive risk for depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 397423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Whitehouse, W. G., Hogan, M. E., Tashman, N. A., Steinberg, D. L., et al. (1999). Depressogenic cognitive styles: Predictive validity, information processing and personality characteristics, and developmental origins. Behavior Research and Therapy, 37, 503531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asarnow, J. R., & Carlson, G. A. (1985). Depression Self-Rating Scale: Utility with child psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 491499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashby, F. G., Isen, A. M., & Turken, A. U. (1999). A neuropsychological theory of positive affect and its influence on cognition. Psychological Review, 106, 529550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International Universities Press.
Birleson, P. (1981). The validity of depressive disorders and the development of a self-rating scale: A research report. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 22, 7388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenner, E. (2000). Mood induction in children: Methodological issues and clinical implications. Review of General Psychology, 4, 264283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckley, M. E., Klein, D. N., Durbin, C. E., Hayden, E. P., & Moerk, K. C. (2002). Development and validation of a q-sort procedure to assess temperament and behavior in preschool-age children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 525539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burhans, K. K., & Dweck, C. S. (1995). Helplessness in early childhood: The role of contingent worth. Child Development, 66, 17191738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buss, K. A., & Goldsmith, H. H. (1998). Fear and anger regulation in infancy: Effects on the temporal dynamics of affective expression. Child Development, 69, 359374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, J. B., Davies, P., & Richman, B. (1971). Word Frequency Book. New York: American Heritage.
Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Newman, D. L., & Silva, P. A. (1996). Behavioral observations at age 3 years predict adult psychiatric disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 10331039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, L. A., Watson, D., & Mineka, S. (1994). Temperament, personality, and the mood and anxiety disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 103116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, D. A., & Jordan, A. E. (1995). Competence and memory: Integrating psychosocial and cognitive correlates of child depression. Child Development, 66, 459473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, P. F., & Depue, R. A. (1992). A neurobehavioral systems approach to developmental psychopathology: Implications for disorders of affect. In D. Cicchetti & S. L. Toth (Eds.), Developmental perspectives on depression. Rochester Symposium on developmental psychopathology (Vol. 4, pp. 29101). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Conley, C. S., Haines, B. A., Hilt, L. M., & Metalsky, G. I. (2001). The Children's Attibutional Style Interview: Developmental tests of cognitive diathesis-stress theories of depression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 445463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curry, J. F., & Craighead, W. E. (1990). Attributional style in clinically depressed and conduct disordered adolescents. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 109115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, R. J. (1998). Affective style and affective disorders: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 307330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, R. J., Lewis, D. A., Alloy, L. B., Amaral, D. G., Bush, G., Cohen, J. D., et al. (2002). Neural and behavioral substrates of mood and mood regulation. Biological Psychiatry, 52, 478502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deldin, P. J., Keller, J., Gergen, J. A., & Miller, G. A. (2000). Right-posterior face processing anomaly in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 116121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Depue, R. A. (1995). Neurobiological factors in personality and depression. European Journal of Personality, 9, 413439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Depue, R. A., & Collins, P. F. (1999). Neurobiology of the structure of personality: Dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation, and extraversion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 491569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (3rd ed.). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
Durbin, C. E., Klein, D. N., Hayden, E. P., Buckley, M. E., & Moerk, K. C. (2005). Temperamental emotionality in preschoolers and parental mood disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 2837.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdley, C. A., Cain, K. M., Loomis, C. C., Dumas-Hines, F., & Dweck, C. S. (1997). Relations among children's social goals, implicit personality theories, and responses to social failure. Developmental Psychology, 33, 263272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, T. (1992). Infants of depressed mothers. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, J., & Flynn, C. (2001). Predictors of depressive cognitions in young adolescents. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 353376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, J., & Horowitz, J. L. (2002). Depression in children. In I. H. Gotlib & C. L. Hammen (Eds.), Handbook of depression (pp. 510540). New York: Guilford Press.
Gibb, B. E. (2002). Childhood maltreatment and negative cognitive styles: A quantitative and qualitative review. Clinical Psychology Review, 22, 223246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldsmith, H. H., Reilly, J., Lemery, K. S., Longley, S., & Prescott, A. (1995). Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery: Preschool version. Unpublished manuscript.
Gotlib, I. H., Kasch, K. L., Traill, S., Joormann, J., Arnow, B. A., & Johnson, S. L. (2004). Coherence and specificity of information-processing biases in depression and social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 386398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haaga, D. A. F., Dyck, M. J., & Ernst, D. (1991). Empirical status of cognitive theory of depression. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 215236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamburg, S. (1998). Inherited hypohedonia leads to learned helplessness: A conjecture updated. Review of General Psychology, 2, 384403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammen, C., & Zupan, B. A. (1984). Self-schemas, depression, and the processing of personal information in children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 37, 598608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayden, E. P., Klein, D. N., & Durbin, C. E. (2005). Parent reports and laboratory assessments of child temperament: A comparison of their associations with risk for depression and externalizing disorders. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 27, 89100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heyman, G. D., Dweck, C. S., & Cain, K. M. (1992). Young children's vulnerability to self-blame and helplessness: Relationship to beliefs about goodness. Child Development, 63, 401415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four Factor Index of Social Status. Unpublished manuscript.
Ingram, R. E. (2003). Origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 7778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingram, R. E., Miranda, J., & Segal, Z. V. (1998). Cognitive vulnerability to depression. New York: Guilford Press.
Jaenicke, C., Hammen, C., Zupan, B., Hiroto, D., Gordon, D., Adrian, C., et al. (1987). Cognitive vulnerability in children at risk for depression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 559572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jang, K. L., McCrae, R. R., Angleitner, A., Riemann, R., & Livesley, W. J. (1998). Heritability of facet-level traits in a cross-cultural twin sample: Support for a hierarchical model of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 15561565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
John, O. P., & Srivastava, A. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of child personality (2nd ed., pp. 102138). New York: Guilford Press.
Joiner, T. E., & Wagner, K. D. (1995). Attributional style and depression in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 15, 777798.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kagan, J. (1997). Temperament and the reactions to unfamiliarity. Child Development, 68, 139143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaslow, N. J., Rehm, L. P., Pollack, S. L., & Siegel, A. W. (1988). Attributional style and self-control behavior in depressed and nondepressed children and their parents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 163175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kazdin, A. E., & Petti, T. A. (1982). Self-report and interview measures of childhood and adolescent depression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 23, 437457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelvin, R. G., Goodyer, I. M., Teasdale, J. D., & Brechin, D. (1999). Latent self-schema and high emotionality in well adolescents at risk for psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40, 959968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, D. F. (1987). Depression and anhedonia. In D. C. Clark & J. Fawcett (Eds.), Anhedonia and affect deficit states (pp. 114). New York: PMA Publishing.
Kochanska, G., Coy, K. C., Tjebkes, T. L., & Husarek, S. J. (1998). Individual differences in emotionality in infancy. Child Development, 64, 375390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1921). Manic depressive insanity and paranoia. Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingston.
Lemery, K. S., Goldsmith, H. H., Klinnert, M. D., & Mrazek, D. A. (1999). Developmental models of infant and childhood temperament. Developmental Psychology, 35, 189204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, R. E., Diener, E., Grob, A., Suh, E. M., & Shao, L. (2000). Cross-cultural evidence for the fundamental features of extroversion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 452468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science, 7, 186189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meehl, P. E. (1975). Hedonic capacity: Some conjectures. Bulletin of the Menniger Clinic, 39, 295307.Google Scholar
Meyer, N. E., Dyck, D. G., & Petrinack, R. J. (1989). Cognitive appraisal and attributional correlates of depressive symptoms in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 325336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neff, C., & Klein, D. N. (1992). The relationships between maternal behavior and psychopathology and offspring adjustment in depressed mothers of toddlers. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Research in Psychopathology, Palm Springs, CA.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Girgus, J. S., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1992). Predictors and consequences of childhood depressive symptoms: A 5-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 405422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wolfson, A., Mumme, D., & Guskin, K. (1995). Helplessness in children of depressed and nondepressed mothers. Developmental Psychology, 31, 377387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, J. M., & Berger, L. S. (1992). Depression, parent–offspring relationships, and cognitive vulnerability. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 7, 415429.Google Scholar
Pedlow, R., Sanson, A., Prior, M., & Oberklaid, X. (1993). Stability of maternally reported temperament from infancy to 8 years. Developmental Psychology, 29, 9981007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rottenberg, J., Kasch, K. L., Gross, J. J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2002). Sadness and amusement reactivity differentially predict concurrent and prospective functioning in major depressive disorder. Emotion, 2, 135146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On depression, development, and death. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman.
Shankman, S. A., Tenke, C. E., Bruder, G. E., Durbin, C. E., Hayden, E. P., & Klein, D. N. (2005). Low positive emotionality in young children: Association with EEG asymmetry. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 8598.Google Scholar
Sloan, D. M., Strauss, M. E., & Wisner, K. L. (2001). Diminished response to pleasant stimuli by depressed women. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 488493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smiley, P., & Dweck, C. S. (1994). Individual differences in achievement goals among young children. Child Development, 65, 17231743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, K. D., Schmidt, K. L., & Joiner, T. E. (1996). Cognitive triad: Relationship to depressive symptoms, parents' cognitive triad, and perceived parental messages. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 24, 615632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, L., & Ingram, R. E. (1999). Cognitive reactivity and depressotypic information processing in children of depressed mothers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 202210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tellegen, A., Lykken, D. T., Bouchard, T. J., Wilcox, K. J., Segal, N. L., & Rich, S. (1988). Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 10311039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, M., Kaslow, N. J., Weiss, B., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1998). Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire—Revised: Psychometric examination. Psychological Assessment, 10, 166170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Os, J., Jones, P., Lewis, G., Wadsworth, M., & Murray, R. (1997). Developmental precursors of affective illness in a general population birth cohort. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 625631.Google Scholar
Watson, D. (2000). Mood and temperament. New York: Guilford Press.
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1997). Extraversion and its positive emotional core. In R. Hogan & J. A. Johnson (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 767793). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Wechsler, D. (1974). Manual for the Wechsler Intelligence for Children-Revised. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.