Effects of Ruminative Response Styles on Mental Maladjustment

Abstract

The response styles theory (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991) suggests that people who ruminate on their symptoms in response to depressive mood, suffer longer periods of depression than those who act to distract themselves from their symptoms. Previous studies have reported that self-focused rumination maintains or exacerbates depressive mood by increasing pessimism. This study examined the relationship between rumination and pessimism, cognitive styles and mental adjustment in Japanese students. Subjects with negative ruminations were more likely to have a pessimistic outlook, negative cognitive styles and worse mental adjustment after 6 months. These results suggest that negative ruminations can predict the degree of adjustment in the future, after controlling for initial adjustment level.