TY - JOUR A1 - Meiser, Susanne A1 - Esser, Günter T1 - Interpersonal Stress Generation-A Girl Problem? BT - The Role of Depressive Symptoms, Dysfunctional Attitudes, and Gender in Early Adolescent Stress Generation JF - Journal of early adolescence N2 - To provide further insight into stress generation patterns in boys and girls around puberty, this study investigated longitudinal reciprocal relations between depressive symptoms, dysfunctional attitudes, and stress generation, the process by which individuals contribute to the occurrence of stress in interpersonal contexts (e.g., problematic social interactions) or in noninterpersonal contexts (e.g., achievement problems). A community sample of N = 924 German children and early adolescents (51.8% male) completed depressive symptoms and dysfunctional attitudes measures at T1 and again 20 months later (T2). Stressful life events were reported at T2. Dysfunctional attitudes were unrelated to stress generation. Interpersonal, but not noninterpersonal, dependent stress partially mediated the relationship between initial and later depressive symptoms, with girls being more likely to generate interpersonal stress in response to depressive symptoms. Findings underscore the role of interpersonal stress generation in the early development of depressive symptomatology, and in the gender difference in depression prevalence emerging around puberty. KW - stress generation KW - depression KW - dysfunctional attitudes KW - children and adolescents KW - gender differences Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431617725197 SN - 0272-4316 SN - 1552-5449 VL - 39 IS - 1 SP - 41 EP - 66 PB - Sage Publ. CY - Thousand Oaks ER - 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 - TY - JOUR A1 - Meiser, Susanne A1 - Zietlow, Anna-Lena A1 - Reck, Corinna A1 - Träuble, Birgit T1 - The impact of postpartum depression and anxiety disorders on children's processing of facial emotional expressions at pre-school age JF - ARCHIVES OF WOMENS MENTAL HEALTH N2 - To enhance understanding of impaired socio-emotional development in children of postpartum depressed or anxious mothers, this longitudinal study addressed the question of whether maternal postpartum depression and anxiety disorders result in deficits in children's processing of facial emotional expressions (FEEs) at pre-school age. Thirty-two mothers who had fulfilled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) criteria for postpartum depression and/or anxiety disorder and their pre-school aged children were tested for FEE processing abilities and compared to a healthy control group (n = 29). Child assessments included separate tasks for emotion recognition and emotion labelling. Mothers completed an emotion recognition test as well as the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders I (SCID-I). Children of postpartum depressed and/or anxious mothers performed significantly worse than control children at labelling, but not at recognizing facial expressions of basic emotions. Emotion labelling at pre-school age was predicted by child age and maternal postpartum mental health, but neither current maternal mental health nor current maternal emotion recognition was associated with child FEE processing. Results point to a specific importance of early social experiences for the development of FEE labelling skills. However, further studies involving sensitive measures of emotion recognition are needed to determine if there might also exist subtle effects on FEE recognition. KW - Postpartum depression KW - Postpartum anxiety disorders KW - Emotion recognition KW - Emotion labelling KW - Pre-school children Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-015-0519-y SN - 1434-1816 SN - 1435-1102 VL - 18 IS - 5 SP - 707 EP - 716 PB - Springer CY - Wien ER - TY - THES A1 - Meiser, Susanne T1 - Wie dysfunktional sind Dysfunktionale Einstellungen? T1 - How dysfunctional are dysfunctional attitudes? BT - dysfunktionale Kognitionen und Depression im Kindes- und Jugendalter BT - dysfunctional cognitions and depression in children and adolescents N2 - Im kognitiven Vulnerabilitäts-Stress-Modell der Depression von A.T. Beck (1967, 1976) spielen dysfunktionale Einstellungen bei der Entstehung von Depression in Folge von erlebtem Stress eine zentrale Rolle. Diese Theorie prägt seit Jahrzehnten die ätiologische Erforschung der Depression, jedoch ist die Bedeutung dysfunktionaler Einstellungen im Prozess der Entstehung einer Depression insbesondere im Kindes- und Jugendalter nach wie vor unklar. Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich einigen in der bisherigen Forschung wenig behandelten Fragen. Diese betreffen u. a. die Möglichkeit nichtlinearer Effekte dysfunktionaler Einstellungen, Auswirkungen einer Stichprobenselektion, Entwicklungseffekte sowie die Spezifität etwaiger Zusammenhänge für eine depressive Symptomatik. Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen wurden Daten von zwei Messzeitpunkten der PIER-Studie, eines großangelegten Längsschnittprojekts über Entwicklungsrisiken im Kindes- und Jugendalter, genutzt. Kinder und Jugendliche im Alter von 9 bis 18 Jahren berichteten zweimal im Abstand von ca. 20 Monaten im Selbstberichtsverfahren über ihre dysfunktionalen Einstellungen, Symptome aus verschiedenen Störungsbereichen sowie über eingetretene Lebensereignisse. Die Ergebnisse liefern Evidenz für ein Schwellenmodell, in dem dysfunktionale Einstellungen unabhängig von Alter und Geschlecht nur im höheren Ausprägungsbereich eine Wirkung als Vulnerabilitätsfaktor zeigen, während im niedrigen Ausprägungsbereich keine Zusammenhänge zur späteren Depressivität bestehen. Eine Wirkung als Vulnerabilitätsfaktor war zudem nur in der Subgruppe der anfänglich weitgehend symptomfreien Kinder und Jugendlichen zu beobachten. Das Schwellenmodell erwies sich als spezifisch für eine depressive Symptomatik, es zeigten sich jedoch auch (teilweise ebenfalls nichtlineare) Effekte dysfunktionaler Einstellungen auf die Entwicklung von Essstörungssymptomen und aggressivem Verhalten. Bei 9- bis 13-jährigen Jungen standen dysfunktionale Einstellungen zudem in Zusammenhang mit einer Tendenz, Stress in Leistungskontexten herbeizuführen. Zusammen mit den von Sahyazici-Knaak (2015) berichteten Ergebnissen aus der PIER-Studie weisen die Befunde darauf hin, dass dysfunktionale Einstellungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter – je nach betrachteter Subgruppe – Ursache, Symptom und Konsequenz der Depression darstellen können. Die in der vorliegenden Arbeit gezeigten nichtlinearen Effekte dysfunktionaler Einstellungen und die Effekte der Stichprobenselektion bieten eine zumindest teilweise Erklärung für die Heterogenität früherer Forschungsergebnisse. Insgesamt lassen sie auf komplexe – und nicht ausschließlich negative – Auswirkungen dysfunktionaler Einstellungen schließen. Für eine adäquate Beurteilung der „Dysfunktionalität“ der von A.T. Beck so betitelten Einstellungen erscheint daher eine Berücksichtigung der betrachteten Personengruppe, der absoluten Ausprägungen und der fraglichen Symptomgruppen geboten. N2 - In A. T. Beck´s prominent vulnerability-stress-model of depression (Beck 1967, 1976), dysfunctional attitudes represent the key vulnerability factor of depression. This theory has stimulated etiological research on depression for decades. However, the significance of dysfunctional attitudes for the emergence of depression in children and adolescents remains somewhat elusive. This dissertation addresses some questions unanswered by past studies, e.g. the possibility of nonlinear effects of dysfunctional attitudes, the impact of subject selection procedures, developmental effects and the specificity of dysfunctional attitudes for depressive symptomatology. These questions were examined using data from two measurement points of the PIER study, a large longitudinal project on developmental risks in childhood and adolescence. Children and adolescents aged 9 – 18 years reported dysfunctional attitudes, symptoms from various domains and stressful life events twice with a mean interval between assessments of 20 months. Results suggest a threshold model of cognitive vulnerability, in which only dysfunctional attitudes exceeding a certain threshold conferred vulnerability to depressive symptoms, while dysfunctional attitudes below the threshold were unrelated to future depressive symptoms. These effects were invariant across gender and age. Moreover, vulnerability effects of dysfunctional attitudes were observable in initially non-symptomatic participants only. The threshold model of dysfunctional attitudes turned out to be specific for the depressive symptom domain. However, relationships of different shapes were detected between dysfunctional attitudes and the development of aggressive and eating disorder symptoms. Moreover, dysfunctional attitudes in 9 – 13-year old boys predicted non-interpersonal stress generation. Along with evidence from the PIER study reported by Sahyazici-Knaak (2015), results suggest that dysfunctional attitudes in children and adolescents may represent a cause, symptom and consequence of depression, depending on the sub-population in question. The nonlinear effects of dysfunctional attitudes detected in this study might, at least in part, offer an explanation for the inconsistent results of past studies. In sum, findings of this dissertation suggest complex – and not exclusively negative - effects of dysfunctional attitudes. Thus, a judgement of the actual “dysfunctionality” of the “dysfunctional attitudes” proposed by A. T. Beck seems to require a close consideration of the absolute level of attitudes as well as the sub-population and symptom domains in question. KW - Depression KW - Ätiologie KW - Kognition KW - dysfunktionale Einstellungen KW - Kinder KW - Jugendliche KW - kognitive Vulnerabilität KW - depression KW - etiology KW - cognition KW - dysfunctional attitudes KW - children KW - adolescents KW - cognitive vulnerability Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412483 ER -