TY  - JOUR
A1  - Meiser, Susanne
A1  - Esser, Günter
T1  - How dysfunctional are dysfunctional attitudes?
BT  - a threshold model of dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms in children and adolescents
JF  - Cognitive Therapy and Research
N2  - In order to clarify further the role of Beck’s vulnerability-stress model in the early development of depression, this longitudinal study tested a threshold model of dysfunctional attitudes in children and adolescents. An initially asymptomatic sample of 889 youths aged 9–18 years completed measures of dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms. Twenty months later, participants reported stressful life events and current depressive symptoms. Results support a threshold view of cognitive vulnerability as only dysfunctional attitudes above a certain threshold significantly interacted with life events to predict depressive symptoms. Thus, findings suggest that dysfunctional attitudes must exceed a certain threshold to confer vulnerability to depressive symptomatology in youth. The term “dysfunctional” might therefore only apply to higher levels of the “dysfunctional attitudes” proposed by A. T. Beck. Results also indicate that studies using non-clinical samples may systematically underestimate the effect of dysfunctional attitudes when relying on conventional linear methods.
KW  - Cognitive vulnerability
KW  - Depression
KW  - Children
KW  - Adolescents
KW  - Dysfunctional attitudes
KW  - Threshold models
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9842-0
SN  - 0147-5916
SN  - 1573-2819
VL  - 41
SP  - 730
EP  - 744
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -