A Specific Case of Non-specificity: Longitudinal Effects of Dysfunctional Attitudes On Depressive, Eating Disorder and Aggressive Symptoms in Children and Adolescents？ - A Specific Case of Non-specificity: Longitudinal Effects of Dysfunctional Attitudes On Depressive, Eating Disorder and Aggressive Symptoms in Children and Adolescents？ - Open Access Pub

An important step in the validation of disorder-specific etiological models is the examination of the predictive specificity of proposed vulnerability factors. It may advance the understanding of the emergence of comorbidity and the identification of at risk-populations for mental disorders. To enhance the currently limited evidence on the specificity of Beck′s cognitive diathesis-stress model of depression, the present study investigated longitudinal effects of dysfunctional attitudes and stressful life events on the development of depressive, eating disorder and aggressive symptoms in children and adolescents. A large sample of initially asymptomatic children and adolescents completed self-report symptom measures at study entrance and again approx. 20 months later, and reported stressful life events during the study interval. Stressful life events proved to be a risk factor to all investigated symptom domains. Dysfunctional attitudes at T1 were prospectively related to depressive symptoms, aggressive behavior and weight concerns at T2. However, types of associations varied as dysfunctional attitudes showed linear associations with weight concern, but nonlinear effects on depressive and aggressive symptomatology. Findings of the current study thus suggest that dysfunctional attitudes are not uniquely related to the development of depressive symptomatology in children and adolescents, but may contribute to adverse outcomes in various symptom domains. Thus, intervention efforts based on Beck′s vulnerability - stress model of depression may turn out to be useful in reducing vulnerability to a variety of outcomes in children and adolescents. DOI10.14302/issn.2476-1710.jdt-16-1324 Beck′s prominent cognitive vulnerability - stress model posits that dysfunctional attitudes such as “My value as a person depends greatly on what others think of me” or “If I fail at work, then I am a failure as a person” increase risk for depression following the experience of stressful life events 1, 2. Empirical support for Beck′s model has been obtained in child and adolescent samples 3, 4. However, little is known regarding the specificity of the observed effects of dysfunctional attitudes to depression. Establishing the predictive specificity of a putative vulnerability factor is yet crucial for the validation of etiological models, particularly when investigating disorders with very high rates of comorbidity, such as depression 5, 6. While some studies have examined effects of dysfunctional attitudes with regard to anxiety disorders 6, 7, other symptom domains which are