A Prospective Study of Rumination and Depression in Early Adolescence

Abstract

In this study, rumination, depression, and gender role were measured in a group of fourth through sixth graders once each year for 3 years. Results supported the primary hypothesis that rumination level would best predict level of depression at each subsequent assessment. No differences were observed between genders on depression or rumination. However, masculineand femniniiie-identified adolescents had higher depression scores than androgynous individuals, and feminineidentified adolescents had the highest rumination scores overall. Links between rumination, depression, inability to distract, and gender role are explored, and possible treatments are discussed.