Higher cognitive ability buffers stress-related depressive symptoms in adolescent girls

Riglin, Lucy, Collishaw, Stephan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4296-820X, Shelton, Katherine H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1311-5291, McManus, I. C., Ng-Knight, Terry, Sellers, Ruth, Thapar, Ajay K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4589-8833, Frederickson, Norah and Rice, Frances ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9484-1729 2016. Higher cognitive ability buffers stress-related depressive symptoms in adolescent girls. Development and Psychopathology 28 (1) , pp. 97-109. 10.1017/S0954579415000310

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (431kB) | Preview

Abstract

Stress has been shown to have a causal effect on risk for depression. We investigated the role of cognitive ability as a moderator of the effect of stressful life events on depressive symptoms and whether this varied by gender. Data were analyzed in two adolescent data sets: one representative community sample aged 11–12 years (n = 460) and one at increased familial risk of depression aged 9–17 years (n = 335). In both data sets, a three-way interaction was found whereby for girls, but not boys, higher cognitive ability buffered the association between stress and greater depressive symptoms. The interaction was replicated when the outcome was a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. This buffering effect in girls was not attributable to coping efficacy. However, a small proportion of the variance was accounted for by sensitivity to environmental stressors. Results suggest that this moderating effect of cognitive ability in girls is largely attributable to greater available resources for cognitive operations that offer protection against stress-induced reductions in cognitive processing and cognitive control which in turn reduces the likelihood of depressive symptomatology.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine Psychology MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics (CNGG)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Additional Information:	Published online: 24 March 2015
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	0954-5794
Funders:	Nuffield
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	17 Nov 2024 20:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/71984

Citation Data

Cited 14 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item