Vulnerability to Depression: The Role of Children’s Cognitions

Abstract

One of the initial aims of the present investigation was to explore cognitive vulnerability to depression in children. The highly active research on cognitive perspectives on adult depression, briefly outlined in Chapter 2, provided models and tools for understanding how thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations of the self and the world contribute to depression. It seemed likely that such cognitive processes and dysfunctional cognitive content have their origins in childhood in many individuals. By extension, therefore, we predicted that some of the risk to children of women with depressive disorders might stem from dysfunctional cognitions. Thus the research reported here afforded an opportunity to examine potential vulnerability cognitions in high risk children, and the longitudinal design provided methods for testing the relationship between dysfunctional cognition and subsequent depression.