Ruminative Thoughts and Their Relation to Depression and Anxiety1

doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb00225.x

If you are seeing this message, you may be experiencing temporary network problems. Please wait a few minutes and refresh the page. If the problem persists, you may wish to report it to your local Network Manager.

It is also possible that your web browser is not configured or not able to display style sheets. In this case, although the visual presentation will be degraded, the site should continue to be functional. We recommend using the latest version of Microsoft or Mozilla web browser to help minimise these problems.

Wiley InterScience

Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Volume 32 Issue 3, Pages 465 - 485

Published Online: 31 Jul 2006

< Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >

Save Article to My Profile Download Citation Request Permissions

Abstract | References | Full Text: PDF (Size: 1219K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking

Ruminative Thoughts and Their Relation to Depression and Anxiety¹

Jennifer A. Harrington ¹ Virginia Blankenship ² ¹

¹ Northern Arizona University

² Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Virginia Blankenship, Department of Psychology, Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 15106, Flagstaff, AZ 86011. E-mail: Virginia.Blankenship@nau.edu

¹ This research is based, in part, on a master's thesis submitted by the first author to the Northern Arizona University Department of Psychology under the direction of the second author. The authors wish to thank committee members K. Laurie Dickson and Kelly Krietsch for their helpful comments, and the graduate and undergraduate students who assisted with data collection. We thank an anonymous reviewer who contributed significant guidance in revising the manuscript.

ABSTRACT

Although past research has shown a correlation between ruminative response style and depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), the basic relationships among amount of ruminative thoughts, depression, and anxiety has not been established. Scores from the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck & Steer, 1993), and the McIntosh and Martin (1992) Rumination Scale were analyzed for 199 participants. The correlation between rumination and depression was .33, between rumination and anxiety was .32, and between depression and anxiety was .56. The partial correlation between rumination and depression (controlling for anxiety level) was .20, and the partial correlation between rumination and anxiety (controlling for depression level) was .17. The finding that rumination is not unique to depression but is also associated with the specific negative affect of anxiety alone might also suggest new treatments of these two prevalent disorders.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb00225.x About DOI