Poster #10 - Adolescent girls’ attributions of negative social interactions as longitudinal predictors of depression and suicidal ideation

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

Adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by increased sensitivity to peer relationships (Somerville, 2013), as peer interactions have been shown to affect behavioral and cognitive responses such as depression and suicidal ideation (SI) in light of stressors (Telzer et al., 2015; King & Merchant, 2008, Ho et al., 2021). Furthermore, research shows that self-reported cognitive processes such as internal (self-referent) vs. external (other-oriented) attribution styles are linked to onset of depression and SI (Joiner & Wagner, 1995), but it is not known how these unfold in daily life. The current study examined how different attributional styles during in vivo negative peer interactions might predict short term risk for depression and SI outcomes in adolescent girls. First, we hypothesized that girls who experience higher self-referent attributional style in negative day-to-day peer interactions would be at greater risk for depression and SI. Second, we hypothesized that other-oriented attributional style would act as a protective factor against depression and SI for girls.
At Time 1 (T1), 109 girls between ages 11 and 13 years (71.2% White) completed ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) to answer questions about their most recent negative social interactions with peers for 16 days. Following negative peer interactions, they were asked to indicate how they felt during the interaction using a checklist of items. Internal attribution items included statements such as “I worried about what someone else thought of me” or “I felt left out or ignored” and external attribution items included statements such as “I was annoyed with someone” or “I was bored.” These statements were used to create composite scores for each of the attributional styles based on the average number of statements they endorsed over the two week EMA period. Both at T1 and Time 2 (T2; 6 months after T1), girls also completed the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ and MFQ-SI; Angold & Costello, 1987) as a measure of depression and SI.
Four linear regression models were conducted, each predicting either depression or SI based on either internal or external attribution styles, controlling for age and T1 depression and SI scores. In the depression models, T1 higher internal attribution style predicted a greater likelihood of depression symptoms at T2 (standardized β = .35, p < .001; R2 = .35, p < .001)whereas T1 external attribution style did not predict depression at T2. In the SI models, T1 higher internal attribution style predicted a greater likelihood of SI at T2 (standardized β = .21, p < .05; R2 = .098, p < .05), and similar to the depression models, T1 external attribution style did not predict SI at T2. These findings support the centrality of negative self-view in depression and provide insight to how this process unfolds during negative peer experiences on a daily basis. Given the centrality of negative self-view in depression, these real-time self-related attributions of negative experiences carry more weight predicting depression and SI. Future work should further investigate how types of negative peer interactions and friendship status contribute to risk for depression and SI.

Authors

• Zelal Kilic, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Stefanie Sequeira, University of Pittsburgh

• Cecile D Ladouceur, University of Pittsburgh

• Jennifer S. Silk, University of Pittsburgh