Childhood abuse and vulnerability to depression: Cognitive scars in otherwise healthy young adults

• Published in: Cognition and emotion Vol. 28; no. 5; pp. 821 - 833
• Main Authors: Wells, Tony T., Vanderlind, W. Michael, Selby, Edward A., Beevers, Christopher G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hove Routledge 04.07.2014; Psychology Press
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Child Abuse - psychology; Childhood abuse; Cognition - physiology; Depression; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Dual process models; Female; Humans; Interview, Psychological - methods; Male; Medical sciences; Mood disorders; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk Factors; Scars; Students - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Texas; Vulnerability; Young adults; Texas; Human; Mood disorder; Childhood abuse; Healthy subject; Depression; Cognition; Infantile experience; Vulnerability; Victimology; Child abuse; Dual process models; Young adult; Models
• ISSN: 0269-9931; 1464-0600; 1464-0600
• DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2013.864258

Models of depression vulnerability posit that negative early experiences, such as exposure to childhood abuse (CA), increase vulnerability to depression later in life. Though most victims of CA do not go on to develop depression, the question remains as to whether these individuals retain cognitive 'scars' that may contribute to depression vulnerability. The present study examined the relationship between self-reported, retrospective CA and cognitive vulnerability to depression in a carefully selected sample of young adults without current or past psychopathology. We measured cognitive vulnerability with both a self-report questionnaire, the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS), and a measure of information processing bias, the Scrambled Sentences Test (SST). Self-reported severity of CA was associated with increased cognitive vulnerability to depression on both the DAS and SST. Vulnerability to depression as measured by the SST, but not by the DAS, prospectively predicted increases in depressive symptoms over a 6-month period. Scores on the SST also interacted with CA to predict increases in depressive symptoms. These findings demonstrate the pernicious effects of CA even in those without current or past psychopathology.