Longitudinal associations between rumination and depressive symptoms in a probability sample of adults

Background: According to the Response Styles Theory, rumination maintains and exacerbates depression. This study was conducted to examine the bidirectional longitudinal associations between rumination and depressive symptoms in a probability sample of Australian adults, evaluate the degree to which the strength of these longitudinal associations was moderated by gender, and test whether these longitudinal associations remained statistically significant when adjusting for the influence of demographic characteristics and neuroticism. Methods: A probability sample of Australian adults (N = 5891) completed self-report measures of rumination, neuroticism, and depressive symptoms at baseline and rumination and depressive symptoms at a four-year follow-up. Results: Results from regression analyses indicated that rumination predicted residual change in depressive symptoms and depressive symptoms predicted residual change in rumination, suggesting that rumination and depressive symptoms influence one another in a bidirectional, recursive fashion. Gender was not a significant moderator of the longitudinal associations between rumination and depressive symptoms. Analyses including the covariates of age, gender, and neuroticism, a personality trait characterized by heightened negative emotionality, indicated that the bidirectional longitudinal associations between rumination and depressive symptoms were not explained by their shared association with demographic characteristics or neuroticism. Limitations: Within-person analyses involving repeated assessments, shorter time intervals, and assessment of brooding rumination would provide a stronger test of the potential causal association between rumination and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Study findings suggest that rumination may be both a potential risk factor for and a consequence of depressive symptoms in adults.