Co-rumination and lifetime history of depressive disorders in children

Co-rumination, the social process of frequently discussing and rehashing problems with peers, is hypothesized to increase risk for depression, particularly for girls. Although there is growing evidence for a relation between co-rumination and depressive symptoms in youth, it remains unclear whether these results generalize to diagnosable episodes of depression. Using a retrospective behavioral high-risk design with 81 children aged 9 to 14 years, we tested the hypothesis that children currently exhibiting high levels of co-rumination would be more likely to have a history of depressive diagnoses than children with low levels of co-rumination. The results supported this hypothesis. In addition, the link between co-rumination and history of depressive diagnoses was maintained even when we excluded children with current diagnoses and statistically controlled for children's current depressive symptoms, suggesting that the relation is not due simply to current levels of depression.