This competing continuation is part of a 2-site collaborative research grant with an identical application submitted concurrently by Dr. Lyn Y. Abramson at the University of Wisconsin. Prior research did not provide an adequate test of the hopelessness theory (HT) and Beck's theory (BT) of depression and may have been misleading about those cognitive theories' validity. Thus, the overarching goal of this project is to provide a more powerful test of HT's and BT's predictions about the etiology of depression and a validation of the Hopelessness Depression subtype. To this end, a large scale, 5.5-year prospective study was conducted at both sites. Initially nondepressed, non-psychopathological Ss (n=349) who were at either high or low cognitive risk for depression were followed prospectively with independent and blind self-report and interview assessments of stressful life events, cognitions, social support, coping, and psychiatric status/symptoms in order to predict onsets and subsequent recurrences of depression. Familial and developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression were also examined, including assessment of the parents(n=335) of high-risk and low-risk Ss. In this renewal, differential predictors of first onsets vs. recurrences of depression, factors that increase resilience among high-risk Ss and promote depression among low-risk Ss, factors that mediate and moderate change in cognitive vulnerability, and different models of cognitive vulnerability-stress relations are also investigated. This project contributes to: 1) the scientific understanding of the etiology and course of a subset of the mood disorders; 2) a more valid nosology of the depressive disorders; 3) an understanding of the origins and continuity/change of cognitive vulnerability to depression; 4) an understanding of factors that promote resilience to depression; and 5) the development of interventions for treating and preventing depression.
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