Objectives and Methods. Several researchers have provided support for the critical role of cognitive vulnerabilities in the development of depression. The Attitudes toward Self-Revised (ATS-R) was designed to assess three potential self-regulatory vulnerabilities to depression: High Standards (HS), Self-Criticism (SC), and Negative Generalization (NG). The aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the ATS-R in the Italian young adult population. The ATS-R, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and the Teate Depression Inventory (TDI) were administered to 857 (320 men and 537 women) young adults. Results. The best-fitting solution for the ATS-R was a 2-factor model, which obtained satisfactory homogeneity of content (HS/SC: Cronbach ; mean interitem correlation = 0.46. NG: Cronbach ; mean interitem correlation = 0.43) and significant correlation with the BDI-II (NG: Pearson , ), the TDI (HS/SC: Pearson , ), and the BHS (HS/SC: Pearson , ; NG: Pearson , ). Conclusions. The Italian version of the ATS-R seems to be a valid instrument for the study of the role of cognitive tendencies as potential vulnerability for depression. 1. Introduction Depression involves a wide variety of pathological conditions which vary along a continuum from more mild to more severe and persistent forms, such as major depressive disorder (MDD). MDD is the most widespread psychiatric disorder in the world [1–4], although its prevalence differs between countries around the world [5]. At the end of the eighties, the Epidemiological Catchment Area (ECA) study investigated the prevalence of MDD in the US general population and reported 30-day prevalence rates ranging between 1.7% and 3.4% [6]. More recently, the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) estimated a 12-month prevalence of 6.6% [7]. In Italy, the European study on the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) estimated rates of 3.0% and 10.0%, respectively, for the 12-month and lifetime MDD prevalence [8]. MDD is one of the major causes of disability, currently estimated as the fourth cause for the global burden of diseases [9, 10], and expected to become the second one within the year 2020 [9]. Numerous etiological models have been proposed and studied to explain how individuals become depressed. Cognitive theories of depression postulate that the dysfunctional interpretation of a life event may lead the individual to be vulnerable to depression following the occurrence of the stressful event. The most renowned cognitive theories of depression are the
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