





































Graduate Student Journal of Psychology                                                                             Copyright 2


Graduate Student Journal of Psychology                                                                             Copyright 2004 by the Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology  
2004, Vol. 6                                                                                                                          Teachers College, Columbia University                          ISSN 1088-4661 
 
 
 

The Relationship Between Children's Beliefs About the Stability of Traits,  
Rumination, and Negative Affect 

 
 

Lisa D. Dancho  
Fordham University 

 
This study examined the relationship between children’s beliefs about the stability of personality 
and physical traits, their style of introspection, their attributional style, and their mood. In addition, 
gender differences were examined.  Data was collected from fifth grade students in a suburban pub-
lic elementary school in the Northeast and analyzed using correlation analyses. Significant correla-
tions were found between rumination style and mood scale, attributional style, and stability of 
traits.  Moreover, when analyzed by gender, a significant correlation was found between rumination 
style and mood. 

 
 

and their relationship with depression has been a major fo-
cus of research (Beck, l987; Ingram, Miranda, & Segal, 
l998).   

At some point in many people’s lives, clinical depres-
sion affects their mental and physical well being, causing 
the world to seem a bleak and hopeless place.  Indeed, de-
pression is much more common than once believed, with 
nearly eight percent of all Americans experiencing a severe 
depressive episode that leaves them unable to function for 
weeks, or even months (Rutter, 1986).  Depression is a de-
bilitating disorder, affecting all aspects of a person’s life as 
well as the lives of those individuals who are involved with 
the afflicted party.  It is an even more critical issue for 
women as studies have shown that women are almost twice 
as likely as men to develop depressive symptoms (Nolen-
Hoeksema, 1990).  This gender difference in depressive 
rates emerges during adolescence, making this developmen-
tal period an important area for study. 

One cognitive mechanism that may act as a protective 
factor against the development of depression is the ten-
dency of children under the age of nine to view traits as 
more unstable than adults (Seligman, 1990).  If a person 
believes that he or she can change negative self-
characteristics into positive characteristics, then that indi-
vidual is less likely to feel hopeless.  This could lead to a 
more optimistic view of the future and create the ability to 
overcome setbacks more easily because they are more in-
clined to see them as temporary problems that can be con-
quered.  As the child matures mentally, emotionally, and 
physically, a more stable view of the traits they possess 
emerges, perhaps for evolutionary reasons or perhaps be-
cause the child gains more insight into the implausibility of 
specific mechanisms of change.  More and more traits are 
now seen as permanent unchangeable states.  This increase 
in stability can lead to the child adopting a more pessimistic 
worldview thus increasing susceptibility to depression. 

The existence of differing or compounding factors that im-
pact an adolescent girl’s mental health to a larger degree 
than boys of a similar age holds the potential to, at least 
partially, explain the comparatively elevated state of de-
pression in females.  There are a variety of theories regard-
ing gender differences in adolescent depression that cover a 
wide range of factors including hormonal/physical changes 
such as the onset of puberty, increases in the number of life 
stressors, and socio-cultural factors that make an adoles-
cent's role in society difficult (Nolen-Hoeksema & Girgus, 
1994).  There is, however, one area that has not received 
quite as much attention.  With only a few exceptions 
(Didgon & Gotlieb, l983), the previous models have ne-
glected the role that cognitive factors may play in providing 
a greater understanding of the change in incidence rates.  
During the past two decades  the  role  of  cognitive  factors  

Another impact of trait stability can be found in the 
child’s relationship to, and perception of, others.  To the 
degree that the behavior of others is seen as a stable fixed 
response, the child might come to anticipate a greater con-
sistency across varied situations as she grows older.  That 
is, the developing child may begin to believe the behavior 
of others is predetermined.  This may cause the child to 
make stable attributions when trying to understand the 
causes of negative events. 

In addition to viewing the self as a more stable entity as 
they mature, children also develop the ability to introspect 
about the causality of events.  Lockhart (l995) found that 
young children (5-6 years old) seldom use attribution in-
formation to adjust their affective response to a situation; 
instead the outcome and whether it is seen as positive or 
negative primarily determines their feelings.  Older chil-

 
 
 
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to 
Lisa Dancho, 97 Pond Road, Wilton, CT 06897. E-mail: 
lisadancho@aol.com. 

24 



RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STABILITY AND RUMINATION 
 

The processes used by girls to cope with stressful situa-
tions can also be affected by learned helplessness.  For in-
stance, rumination, which is the passive, repetitive focus on 
negative emotions, is much more common among females 
than males.  It is theorized that because girls have less con-
trol over their environment, they ruminate over their prob-
lems in an attempt to understand their mental distress.  Ac-
cording to Women’s Health Weekly (August 17, 1998), 
there are gender differences in the patterns of adolescents’ 
worrying.  Girls reported being more worried about their 
appearance, interpersonal relationships, acceptance, and 
safety, issues that are not totally under their control.  Boys 
however, reported being more concerned with “sports and 
other activities,” issues that they tend to have more personal 
control over (Women’s Health Weekly, August 17, 1998).  
Since, in general, the worries of teenage girls focus on those 
items over which they do not have total control they rumi-
nate in order to deal with these problems emotionally.  This 
constant fixation on stressful problems can arguably be a 
major contributor to depressive symptoms in young girls. 

dren, however, are more likely to use attribution informa-
tion, including stable trait information, to exacerbate or 
attenuate their emotional response to an event.  This could 
lead the older child to seek out reasons for feeling badly, 
ruminate about them, and use negative attributional infor-
mation to determine a response to particular events.  Al-
though these changing beliefs do not necessarily make one 
depressed, this cognitive framework may act to make one 
more vulnerable to hopelessness in the face of negative life 
events and lead to depression.   

If cognitive changes are a factor in the increase in vul-
nerability to depression, then it would be expected that 
older children with an increased negative mood should ex-
hibit a pessimistic attributional style, view traits as being 
stable, and be high in rumination.  Similarly, because the 
appearance of sex differences in depression begins to 
emerge in older children, females should exhibit higher 
rumination, have a more pessimistic attributional style, and 
possess a greater belief in the stability of traits.  Earlier 
studies by Nolen-Hoeksema (1990) among college students 
found evidence that rumination is linked to persistent nega-
tive mood states and that women as a group spend more 
time ruminating than men.  These apparent sex differences 
in rumination style could account for the emerging gender 
difference found in depression and could be an important 
indicator of future depression.   

Similarly, Worchel (1987) suggested from her research 
that females have a tendency to internalize their difficulties 
in life, whereas males have a tendency to externalize their 
difficulties.  It is debatable as to which method of coping is 
healthier, but perhaps, because females have been trained to 
feel unable to control their problems, they do not know how 
to cope in ways that could better their situation.  Learned 
helplessness could result from all of the previous theories 
mentioned and from a constant buildup of feeling out of 
control in life. 

One socio-cultural explanation for differing cognitive 
processes in females may be provided by the concept of 
learned helplessness.  In the 1960’s, Seligman and his asso-
ciates performed experiments in which dogs were given 
either a controllable or uncontrollable shock.  The dogs in 
the “controllable shock” group quickly learned that they 
could turn off the shock by jumping over a short barrier.  
However, dogs in the “uncontrollable shock” group did not 
have any control over escaping the shock.  Furthermore, 
even when the latter group was put into a situation where 
they could control the shock, they were unable to learn how 
to do so.  Seligman and his associates coined this behavior 
“learned helplessness” (Overmier & Seligman, 1967).  
They also identified certain characteristics that symbolized 
the response of organisms to uncontrollable situations, such 
as decreased motivation, an inability to learn new responses 
to control the environment, passivity, and sadness (Selig-
man, 1975).  Interestingly, many of these same characteris-
tics are also indicators of clinical depression.   

The objective of this research is to explore the cogni-
tive factors discussed above.  This study represents the 
baseline of an ongoing longitudinal investigation of the 
hypothesis that, as children mature, they will spend more 
time looking inward as to the specific reasons for events, 
especially negative ones, and this internal introspection, or 
rumination, will then be related to negative mood states.  
Specifically, the primary goal of this study is to explore 
whether the sex differences that occur in rumination style 
are already apparent in fifth grade children and whether 
such tendencies are related to increased negative affect in 
females.   

Additionally, this study will evaluate the hypothesis 
that fifth grade children who view negative traits as more 
stable will be more likely to show negative mood states 
than older children who do not will.  It is also predicted that 
those children who see traits as stable and who also have a 
tendency to ruminate over sad feelings will be the most 
likely to show negative affect. 

The theory of “learned helplessness” can be used to 
support the findings of increased depression levels in teen-
age girls.  Evidence suggests that female socialization is 
more likely than male socialization to lead to a feeling of 
learned helplessness, because females are taught helpless-
ness and dependence rather than self-reliance and self-
assertion (Lips, 1997).  Therefore, females do not learn that 
they have the ability to control their environments.  Accord-
ing to Radloff (1980), males are more strongly socialized to 
believe that their responses to a situation make a difference 
in the outcome.   

Further, the study will explore the relationship between 
the subject’s beliefs about stability of traits and their attri-
bution style.  Studies by Nolen–Hoeksema (1990) and 
Seligman (1995) have found that children who have a stable 
global attribution style are more susceptible to negative 
moods.  It is hypothesized that a stable global attribution 
style is likely to be correlated with the child's belief about 
stability of traits.  That is, those children who are more 

25 



DANCHO 
 

likely to see traits as unchangeable will be more likely to 
make stable attributions about events and children who 
view traits as more changeable will be more likely to make 
unstable attributions about events. 

In summary, this study seeks to explore the possible re-
lationship between beliefs about stability of traits, children's 
attribution style, and negative mood states.  It also hopes to 
examine the degree to which children in this age group en-
gage in ruminative behavior when sad and if there is a sig-
nificant sex difference in rumination within this age group.  
This study will help contribute to our understanding of the 
role cognitive factors might play in the increased incidence 
of depressive disorders in older children as compared to 
younger age groups.   

 
Method 

 
Participants 
 

Thirty-one children in the fifth grade, ages 10 and 11, 
participated in this study.  Included in the study were 13 
males (mean age 10.61) and 18 females (mean age 10.27).  
The children were recruited from an elementary school in 
southwestern Connecticut and were predominantly Cauca-
sian.   
 
Procedure 
 

Consent forms were obtained from each participant’s 
parent.  Each participant was given eight different stories in 
random order.  The protagonist in each story was the same 
gender as the participant.  The participants were told that 
the main character in each story had the trait when they 
were both five and ten years old.  The character was then 
described at 21 years of age and the participant was asked if 
the trait has changed and were asked the reasons for their 
responses.  Children were then asked to fill out the CES-
DC, the Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire, and 
the Rumination Questionnaire.  Each child was interviewed 
individually by the data collector in a quiet room and the 
interviews lasted approximately 20 minutes. 
Measures 

Demographics. Participant’s grade level, date of birth, 
and ages were collected. 

Stability of traits. Each child was presented with the 
Stability of Traits Index (Lockhart, 1995).  This index con-
sists of eight short stories about boys or girls who would 
like to change the following traits that they possess: being a 
slow learner, being clumsy, being unusually short, being 
very mean, being shy, being ugly, being overweight, and 
being overly aggressive.  In each story, the negative trait 
was present when the main character was both five and 10 
years old.  The character was then described at 21 years of 
age and the child was asked to surmise whether or not the 
trait had changed.  In each story the participants were told 
that the character had never had an operation and that they 

did not take medicine on a regular basis.  These last state-
ments were meant to rule out the possibility of changes 
being attributed to external interventions.   

On the traits questionnaire, responses were given a 
score of one, two, or three.  A score of one was given to 
participants who said that the trait would not change, a 
score of two was given to participants who thought an aver-
age change would occur, and a score of three was recorded 
for responses that predicted an extreme positive change.  
The responses for each question were then totaled to give 
the participants their overall score.  The range of possible 
scores was eight to 24 and higher scores indicated lower 
levels of the construct.  The traits questionnaire had a mod-
erate internal consistency (α = .67) for this sample. 

Rumination. Next, the participants were given a Rumi-
nation Questionnaire which included 26 Likert style, forced 
choice questions.  The Rumination Questionnaire was de-
veloped for this pilot study to explore the participant’s in-
trospection style and included questions such as “when I’m 
sad, I like to listen to sad music.”     

For the rumination questionnaire, responses were given 
a Likert scaling of one to five, with a one representing 
never ruminating and a five representing always ruminat-
ing.  The positive questions were reverse scored and the 
responses were then totaled to give the participant their 
overall score.  The range of possible scores was 26 to 130 
and higher scores indicated a higher level of the construct.  
The Rumination Questionnaire had a high internal consis-
tency (α = .73) for this sample. 

Attributional style. Also, the participants were given a 
subset of The Children's Attributional Style Question-
naire—Revised (CASQ-R; Seligman et al., 1984) which 
was used to assess optimistic and pessimistic explanatory 
style. The CASQ-R consists of 24 items with six subscales 
providing internal, stable, and global attribution scores for 
both positive and negative events.  Each item consists of a 
hypothetical event for which participants are required to 
choose the most likely explanation from two alternatives.  
A composite positive event score is calculated by adding 
the internal, stable, and global attribution scores for positive 
events.  Similarly, a composite negative event score is cal-
culated by adding the internal, stable, and global attribution 
scores for negative events.  The overall composite score 
used in the present study was calculated by subtracting the 
composite negative event score from the composite positive 
event score, with lower scores indicating a more depressive 
attributional style.  The psychometric properties of the 
CASQ-R have been shown to be acceptable, but not strong, 
with moderate internal consistency (α = .50–.73), and fair 
test-retest reliability (α = .71–.80).  Each questionnaire con-
sisted of 18 forced choice questions. 

On the attribution questionnaire, responses were given 
a score of zero or one.  The questionnaire consisted of 18 
questions.  Nine of the questions were positive attribution 
style questions and nine were negative attribution style 
questions.  Each of the positive and negative scores was 
totaled and the negative score was subtracted from the posi-

26 



RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STABILITY AND RUMINATION 
 

tive score to give the participant their overall score.  The 
range of possible scores was negative nine to positive nine, 
with higher scores indicating lower levels of the construct.  
Included as part of the negative score for the attributional 
questionnaire, the hopelessness score was determined by 
adding two subsets (pervasive bad events and permanent 
bad events) of the negative score to get the overall hope-
lessness score.  The range of possible scores was zero to six 
and higher scores indicated lower levels of the construct. 

Negative affect. Finally, each participant was given the 
Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Child 
(CES-DC) test created by Weissman and Orvaschell (1980).  
The original, 20-item CES-D was validated in a two-
community survey that included both general and clinical 
populations.  It was found to have high internal consistency 
(α = .85 in the general population and α = .90 in the patient 
sample), adequate test-retest reliability (between .45 and 
.70), and high convergent validity with established self-
report and clinical ratings of depression (Radloff, 1977). In 
addition, both the CES-D and a 20-item youth version 
(CES-DC; Weissman, Orvaschell, & Padian, 1980) have 
demonstrated good reliability and construct validity with 
child and adolescent populations (Doerfler, Felner, Rowli-
son, Raley, & Evans, 1988; Faulstich, Carey, Ruggiero, 
Enyart, & Gresham, 1986; Garrison, Jackson, Marstellar, 
McKeown, & Addy, 1990; Roberts, Andrews, Lewinsohn, 
& Hops, 1990).  

For the CES-DC, responses were given a score of zero, 
one, two, or three.  A score of zero was given to partici-
pants who expressed not having any depressive symptoms, 
a score of one was given to those participants who ex-
pressed having slight depressive symptoms, a score of two 
was given to those participants who expressed having some 
depressive symptoms, and a score of three was given to 
those participants who expressed having a lot of depressive 
symptoms.  The positive questions were reverse scored.  
The response scores were then totaled to give the partici-
pant their overall score.  The range of possible scores was 
zero to 42 with higher scores indicating higher levels of the 
construct. 
 

Results 
 
Descriptive Statistics. The mean age for the sample 

was 10.42 years.  The mean age for the boys sample was 
10.62 years and the mean age for the girls sample was 
10.28 years. 

Sixteen percent (n = 31) of the participants' scores on 
the mood scale were above 20, the cut-off for significant 
negative mood symptoms (Seligman, l995).  Four of the 
five participants who scored above 20 were females, how-
ever, this was not significant (z = 1.11, n.s.). Also, there 
was no significant gender difference for overall scores (t = -
0.20, d.f. 29, n.s.).   

Nineteen percent (n = 31) of participants scored below 
nine on the Attributional Style Questionnaire, exhibiting a 
pessimistic attributional style.  Male participants were sig-

nificantly more likely to be pessimistic than females (t = 
2.82, d.f. 29, p. <.001). 

Hopelessness was measured by adding participants' 
scores on the pervasive bad events and the permanent bad 
event items.  None of the scores fell in the hopeless range.  
No significant difference was found between genders (t 
=0.01, d.f. 29, n.s.). 

Three percent (n = 31) of participants scored above 78 
on the rumination scale, the cut off for high levels of rumi-
nation.   

Overall, participants believed that traits would change 
in only an average positive direction over time, if at all.  57 
percents (n = 31) of participants' responses indicated that 
negative traits would change in an average direction over 
time; only 15% (n = 31) of responses indicated a belief that 
extreme positive change was possible.  28 percents (n = 31) 
of participants' answers endorsed the belief that negative 
traits would remain stable over development.  No signifi-
cant gender differences were found in beliefs about change-
ability of traits (t = -0.23, d.f. 29, n.s.). 

Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference 
between traits and their perceived stability, (F (2, 31) = 
4.01 = p < .001).  Generally, participants were less likely to 
believe that traits such as short, fat, and ugly would change 
over time than traits such as meanness, aggressiveness, and 
clumsiness. 

Associations with Mood. As shown in Table 3, rumina-
tion scores were found to be significantly related to scores 
on the mood scale, attributional style scale, and beliefs 
about stability of traits.  When analyzed by gender, a sig-
nificant correlation was still found between rumination and 
mood (females, r = .486, d.f. = 29 p<.01; males, r = .839, 
p<.01). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Table 1 
Descriptive Statistics for Study Measures        
 
       Boys                      Girls 
       n = 13        n = 18 
     M SD                           M SD 
 
Depression 11.38 6.13               11.94 8.43 
Hopelessness1   1.62   .87                 1.61 1.14 
Attribution2   9.38 2.57                11.77 2.16 
Rumination 65.30    11.20        62.06 8.92 
Stability of  
Traits1                           14.77 3.11               15.00 2.37 
 
1 Higher scores indicate lower levels of the construct. 
2 Higher scores indicate lower pessimism. 
 

27 



DANCHO 
 

Table 2 
Score and Standard Deviation for Perceived Stability of 
Specific Traits. N=31 
 
 
Trait            M                SD 
 
Short           1.51              .57 
Aggressive          2.25  .56 
Fat            1.74  .63 
Ugly            1.74  .63 
Clumsy            2.03  .71 
Slow                         1.80  .70 
Shy            1.94  .68 
Mean                             2.00                           .52 
 

 
 

Table 3 
Correlations Between Participants' Scores on the Various  
Measures 
 
  
 Mood Attributional Hope-

lessness 
Rumination 

 
Mood 

    

Attributional -.12    
Hopelessness -.26 -.20   
Rumination  .59** -.44* -.09  
Stability of 
traits 

-.04  .10                .13 -.43* 

 
* correlation is significant at the .05 level (2 – tailed) 
** correlation is significant at the .001 level (2 – tailed) 
N = 31 
 

Discussion 
 
The findings from this study suggest that gender differ-

ences in negative affect may not be present as early as the 
fifth grade.  Overall, no significant difference was found 
between the scores of boys and girls on the mood scale at 
this age.  This finding is consistent with other studies that 
have also found no significant gender differences in depres-
sion among pre-adolescents (Essau & Peterman, l999).  
Sixteen percent of pre-adolescent children in this sample 
did exhibit significant negative mood symptoms.  It is inter-
esting, moreover, that more females than males scored 
above the cut-off score of twenty (22% vs. 7%).  Although 
again this difference was not significant, it might be an in-
dication of emerging gender differences.  It would be inter-
esting to follow up this sample of boys and girls in to ado-
lescence to see if significant gender differences do develop. 

Since the mood scale only measures negative affect 
during the past week, it is not clear how stable the negative 
mood symptoms are.  In this sample, increased negative 

mood was found to be significantly correlated with rumina-
tive behavior for both males and females.  Past research by 
Nolen-Hoeksema (l990) has found that passive ruminative 
behavior maintains negative mood.  It is possible therefore 
that those children showing high levels of negative mood 
and ruminative behavior would be the most vulnerable to 
developing a depressive disorder.   

One of the few significant gender differences found in 
this study was in attributional style: males were more pes-
simistic overall than females.  A similar finding has been 
reported by Seligman (1995).  Boys and girls did not differ 
from one another, however, on the hopelessness measure 
taken from the CASQ.  Since this measure looks at attribu-
tions made for pervasive and permanent bad events, it 
seems that the difference between males and females may 
center on the attributions they make for good events.  That 
is, males may be less optimistic about seeing good events as 
stable, pervasive, and due to their own actions.  One might 
have expected females to show a more pessimistic attribu-
tional style since a pessimistic attributional style has been 
associated with negative mood states and since females 
generally are more at risk for depression.  Further research 
should investigate whether attributions for negative events 
are more predictive of depression than attributions for posi-
tive events.  Indeed, pessimistic attributions for the occur-
rence of positive events might help protect one from being 
disappointed if they do not occur.  The pessimism shown by 
males for good events might actually be a defense against 
depressive reactions. 

As stated earlier, a more pessimistic attributional style 
has been found to be related to depressive symptoms in 
children (Nolen-Hoeksema, et. al., 1991).  In this study, a 
significant relationship was not found between a pessimistic 
attributional style and negative mood.  Attributional style 
was negatively correlated with rumination.  That is, those 
children who ruminated more were more likely to have a 
pessimistic attributional style.  Attributional style and rumi-
nation might be risk factors for these pre-adolescent chil-
dren, indicating a predisposition to developing depression 
following negative life events. 

No gender differences were found on the rumination 
measure.  Based on previous work by Nolen-Hoeksema it 
was expected that females would engage in more rumina-
tion than the males.  Results of this study however, seem to 
be consistent with those found by Lockhart and Levy (per-
sonal communication, l998) who found no gender differ-
ences in self reported rumination.  Lockhart and Levy found 
that although both male and female adults engaged in rumi-
nation, females tended to share their concerns with others 
while men kept their negative thoughts to themselves.  In 
this study also, the boys who ruminated wanted to be left 
alone with their sadness and expressed the desire to with-
draw from family, friends, and social activities.  Perhaps 
this could be caused by their concept of what typical, or 
stereotypical, male behavior should consist of.  Several 
males stated that when they are sad they do not want to talk 
to their friends about their sadness.  Conceivably, they be-

28 



RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STABILITY AND RUMINATION 
 

lieve that discussing their sadness is a sign of weakness and 
opens them to criticism from their peers.  Girls however 
may be more likely to share their worries with other girls.  
Perhaps this sharing with others, however, gives validity to 
their worries and concerns and further exacerbates them, 
worsening their mood state. 

The participants in this study were less optimistic about 
changing negative traits than younger children.  Lockhart et 
al. (in press) found that young children generally believe 
that negative traits can change in the extreme positive direc-
tion over development.  This has been found to be true for 
both physical and psychological traits.  The pre-adolescent 
children in this study, however, believed that only average 
change, if any, was possible.  As in other studies, certain 
traits were seen as more malleable than others.  Interest-
ingly, negative traits relevant to the self image of girls were 
seen as the most stable, e.g. fat and unattractive, whereas 
the negative trait of clumsiness or poor athletic ability, a 
trait of importance to boys' self image, was perceived as 
very malleable (Lockhart et al., in press).  Pre-adolescent 
girls' beliefs about the stability of such traits as attractive-
ness and weight might make them more vulnerable to nega-
tive mood states if they possess negative instances of those 
traits.  In the present study, no significant relationship was 
found between negative mood state and a belief in the sta-
bility of traits.  Again, seeing traits as more stable is proba-
bly only a risk factor for depression that comes into play 
when a person believes they possess negative traits, a belief 
that may be triggered by negative life events. 

There was a significant correlation between rumination 
and belief in stability of traits.  That is, those children who 
spent more time thinking about their problems were more 
likely to view traits as stable.  Since belief in the stability of 
traits is characteristic of adults, this correlation may simply 
reflect the fact that those people who are more cognitively 
mature are more likely to worry or ruminate.  A study that 
examines the relationship between these two variables in an 
adult population would be able to shed further light on this.  
Overall, the rumination scale was the measure most 
strongly related to negative mood as well as other measures 
of pessimism (CASQ and Stability of Traits).  Without 
other comparison groups, it is unclear whether the level of 
rumination shown by this pre-adolescent group is similar or 
different from that of other age groups.  Further research 
should be conducted with other age groups to better under-
stand developmental differences.  Similarly, assessments 
should be taken of subjects across time and with other 
measures in order to examine the reliability and validity of 
this scale. 
 

Future Studies 
 

With the exception of the rumination scores, most of 
the scores showed only slight interrelationships.  However, 
the relationship between these measures may become 
stronger with age and a higher rumination style may lead to 
later development of a pessimistic style.  Therefore, further 

investigation, by conducting a longitudinal study with this 
same sample of children should be conducted.  The study 
should strive to determine if those who were high in rumi-
nation, low in attributional style, and had a belief in the 
stability of traits were the same individuals that exhibit de-
pressive symptoms later in life. 
 

Conclusion 
 

Cognitive changes are factors that may increase an in-
dividual’s vulnerability to depression.  Children who have 
high rumination, have a pessimistic attributional style, and 
view traits as stable are more susceptible to negative mood.  
It is unclear as to the exact age where gender differences 
emerge.  Additional studies are necessary in order to de-
velop a deeper insight into developmental differences. 

Historically, children were not considered candidates 
for depression (Whitley, 1996).  Mostly due to Freudian 
notions about the unconscious, depression had been viewed 
as a condition that only affected adults.  Today, childhood 
depression is widely recognized and health professionals 
see depression as a serious condition effecting both adoles-
cents and young children (Whitley, 1996; Lamarine, 1995).  
One of the factors that make depression so difficult to diag-
nose in adolescents is the common behavioral changes that 
are normally associated with the hormonal changes of this 
period (Lamarine, 1995).  It has only been in recent years 
that the medical community has acknowledged childhood 
depression and viewed it as a condition that requires inter-
vention. 

It is obvious that the added pressures, stresses, and so-
cietal norms placed on today’s adolescents make them 
much more susceptible to depression than ever before.  The 
financial, emotional, and physical impact of depression 
represents an enormous burden on humanity.  Society, as a 
whole, needs to be educated as to the detrimental effects of 
depression on adolescents’ health, as well as take steps to 
develop the means to treat and eventually prevent this de-
bilitating disorder.  It is important that we endeavor to un-
derstand the causality of all factors.  If adults are to notice, 
and hopefully treat adolescent depression, it is necessary to 
know which factors contribute to the decline in mental well 
being in the first place.   
 

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