Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Party Pooper or Life of the Party: Dampening and Enhancing of Positive Affect in a Peer Context

  • Published:
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Dampening and enhancing responses to positive affect have been linked to depressive symptoms. The main aim of the present study was to examine such responses in an interpersonal peer context and to examine their relation with depressive symptoms. A community sample of 665 seventh-graders (52.0% girls, Mage = 12.7 years) took part in the study. Using a newly developed questionnaire, the Co-Dampening and Co-Enhancing Questionnaire (CoDEQ), a two-factor model distinguishing co-dampening and co-enhancing was validated. Relations with general depressive symptoms, anhedonic symptoms, and friendship quality were investigated. The direction of relations was examined over a 1-year interval using cross-lagged analyses. Cross-sectional results revealed that higher levels of co-dampening and lower levels of co-enhancing were associated with more depressive and anhedonic symptoms, while controlling for co-rumination levels. For anhedonic symptoms, this pattern also held over and above intrapersonal dampening and enhancing. Friendship quality was related to higher concurrent levels of co-enhancing and lower levels of co-dampening. The longitudinal results pointed towards a scar model, in that both depressive and anhedonic symptoms predicted relative increases in co-dampening over time; however, this did not hold in a model in which dampening and enhancing were included as control variables.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Where needed, the t-test was adjusted for unequal variances

  2. Analyses were rerun without the inclusion of drop-ins at follow-up. Values of coefficients did not change considerably and significance levels remained the same.

  3. Following a suggestion of a reviewer, we conducted a post-hoc principal component analysis on our data. This analysis pointed towards two components, which were completely conform the intended co-dampening and co-enhancing constructs (cf., confirmatory factor analysis).

  4. To be able to interpret the fit of the models, nonsignificant paths of the control variables were trimmed. Fit of the trimmed models indicated excellent fit to the data, with p-values of χ2-test >0.05, RMSEA ranging from 0.00 to 0.02, CFI = 1.00, and SRMR ranging from 0.01 to 0.02. All paths of the fully saturated models remained robust. Two additional paths emerged: For anhedonia, higher levels of co-enhancing were predictive of relative decreases in anhedonic symptoms in the model including both co-rumination and gender as covariates, β = −0.09, p = 0.04. In the models in which nonsignificant control paths were omitted, depressive and anhedonic symptoms remained predictive of future levels of co-dampening, also in the models including both dampening and enhancing, β = 0.11, p = 0.01 and β = 0.12, p = 0.03, respectively.

  5. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this interesting suggestion.

  6. To be able to interpret the fit of the models, nonsignificant paths of the control variables were trimmed. Fit of the trimmed models indicated excellent fit to the data, with p-values of χ2-test >0.05 for both models, values RMSEA = 0.00, CFI = 1.00, and SRMR = 0.01. All paths of the fully saturated models remained robust.

References

  • Abela, J. R. Z., & Hankin, B. L. (2008). The development of depression during the transition from early to middle adolescence: a cognitive vulnerability-stress perspective. Journal of Affective Disorders, 107, 111–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bijttebier, P., Raes, F., Vasey, M. W., & Feldman, G. C. (2012). Responses to positive affect predict mood symptoms in children under conditions of stress: a prospective study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40, 381–389.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. Bollen & J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing structural models. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, F. B. (2003). Savoring beliefs inventory (SBI): a scale for measuring beliefs about savouring. Journal of Mental Health, 12, 175–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bukowski, W. M., Hoza, B., & Boivin, M. (1994). Measuring friendship quality during pre-adolescence and early adolescence: the development and psychometric properties of the friendship qualities scale. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 11, 471–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calmes, C. A., & Roberts, J. E. (2008). Rumination in interpersonal relationships: does co-rumination explain gender differences in emotional distress and relationship satisfaction among college students? Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 577–590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, P., Cohen, J., Kasen, S., Velez, C., Hartmark, C., Johnson, J., et al. (1993). An epidemiological study of disorders in late childhood and adolescence, I: age- and gender-specific prevalence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 851–867.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, D. A., Tram, J. M., Martin, J. M., Hoffman, K. B., Ruiz, M. D., Jacquez, F. M., & Maschman, T. L. (2002). Individual differences in the emergence of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents: a longitudinal investigation of parent and child reports. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 156–165.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Costello, E. J., Erkanli, A., & Angold, A. (2006). Is there an epidemic of child or adolescent depression? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 1263–1271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, B. D. (2012). Helping depressed clients reconnect to positive emotion experience: current insights and future directions. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 19, 326–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, G. C., Joormann, J., & Johnson, S. L. (2008). Responses to positive affect: a self-report measure of rumination and dampening. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 507–525.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fergusson, D. M., & Woodward, L. J. (2002). Mental health, educational and social role outcomes of adolescents with depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59, 225–231.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fried, E. (2015). Problematic assumptions have slowed down depression research: why symptoms, not syndromes are the way forward. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, article 309.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fried, E. I., Epskamp, S., Nesse, R. M., Tuerlinckx, F., & Borsboom, D. (2016). What are “good” depression symptoms? Comparing the centrality of DSM and non-DSM symptoms of depression in a network analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 189, 314–320.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gable, S. L., Reis, H. T., Impett, E. A., & Asher, E. R. (2004). What do you do when things go right? The intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits of sharing positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 228–245.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gentzler, A. L., Kerns, K. A., & Keener, E. (2010). Emotional reactions and regulatory responses to negative and positive events: associations with attachment and gender. Motivation and Emotion, 34, 78–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gotlib, I. H., & Joormann, J. (2010). Cognition and depression: current status and future directions. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 285–312.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hankin, B. L., Stone, L., & Wright, P. A. (2010). Corumination, interpersonal stress generation, and internalizing symptoms: accumulating effects and transactional influences in a multiwave study of adolescents. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 217–235.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hershenberg, R., Davila, J., & Leong, S. H. (2014). Depressive symptoms in women and the preference and emotional benefits of discussing positive life events. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 33, 767–788.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katz, L. F., Shortt, J. W., Allen, N. B., Davis, B., Hunter, E., Leve, C., & Sheeber, L. (2014). Parental emotion socialization in clinically depressed adolescents: enhancing and dampening positive affect. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 42, 205–215.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. C., Avenevoli, S., & Merikangas, K. R. (2001). Mood disorders in children and adolescents: an epidemiologic perspective. Biological Psychiatry, 49, 1002–1014.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. C., McGonagle, K., Swartz, M., Blazer, D., & Nelson, C. (1993). Sex and depression in the National Comorbidity Survey: I. Lifetime prevalence, chronicity and recurrence. Journal of Affective Disorders, 29, 85–96.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kline, R. B. (2006). Principles and practices of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kovacs, M. (2003). Children’s depression inventory: Technical manual. New York: Multi-health Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewinsohn, P. M., Rohde, P., & Seeley, J. R. (1998). Major depressive disorder in older adolescents: prevalence, risk factors, and clinical implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 18, 765–794.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Little, R. J. A. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83, 1198–1202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lux, V., & Kendler, K. S. (2010). Deconstructing major depression: a validation study of the DSM-IV symptomatic criteria. Psychological Medicine, 40, 1679–1690.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998-2012). Mplus user’s guide (Seventh ed.). Los Angeles: Muthén & Muthén.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagin, D. S. (2005). Group-based modelling of development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nelis, S., Bastin, M., Raes, F., & Bijttebier, P. (2015a). Leuven anhedonia self-report scale (LASS). Unpublished questionnaire.

  • Nelis, S., Holmes, E. A., & Raes, F. (2015b). Response styles to positive affect and depression: Concurrent and prospective associations in a community sample. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 39, 480–491.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Stice, E., Wade, E., & Bohon, C. (2007). Reciprocal relations between rumination and bulimic, substance abuse, and depressive symptoms in female adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 198–207.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quoidbach, J., Berry, E. V., Hansenne, M., & Mikolajczak, M. (2010). Positive emotion regulation and well-being: Comparing the impact of eight savoring and dampening strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 368–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raes, F., Daems, K., Feldman, G. C., Johnson, S. L., & Van Gucht, D. (2009). A psychometric evaluation of the Dutch version of the responses to positive affect questionnaire. Psychologica Belgica, 49, 293–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raes, F., Smets, J., Nelis, S., & Schoofs, H. (2012). Dampening of positive affect prospectively predicts depressive symptoms in non-clinical samples. Cognition & Emotion, 26, 75–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raes, F., Smets, J., Wessel, I., Van Den Eede, F., Nelis, S., Franck, E., et al. (2014). Turning the pink cloud grey: dampening of positive affect predicts postpartum depressive symptoms. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 77, 64–69.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, A. J. (2002). Co-rumination in the friendships of girls and boys. Child Development, 73, 1830–1843.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, A. J., Carlson, W., & Waller, E. M. (2007). Prospective associations of co-rumination with friendship and emotional adjustment: considering the socioemotional trade-offs of co-rumination. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1019–1031.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, A. J., & Rudolph, K. D. (2006). A review of sex differences in peer relationship processes: potential trade-offs for the emotional and behavioral development of girls and boys. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 98–131.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147–177.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, R. L., & Rose, A. J. (2011). The “cost of caring” in youths’ friendships: considering associations among social perspective taking, co-rumination, and empathetic distress. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1792–1803.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Starr, L. R., & Davila, J. (2009). Clarifying co-rumination: associations with internalizing symptoms and romantic involvement among adolescent girls. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 19–37.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steinberg, L. (1990). Autonomy, conflict, and harmony in the family relationship. In G. R. Elliott & S. S. Feldman (Eds.), At the threshold: The developing adolescent. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, L. B., Hankin, B. L., Gibb, B. E., & Abela, J. R. Z. (2011). Co-rumination predicts the onset of depressive disorders during adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 3, 752–757.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tackett, J. L. (2006). Evaluating models of the personality-psychopathology relationship in children and adolescents. Clinical Psychology Review, 26, 584–599.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Timbremont, B., Braet, C., & Roelofs, J. (2008). Handleiding children’s depression inventory (herziene versie) [manual for Children’s depression inventory (revised version)]. Amsterdam: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tugade, M. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2007). Regulation of positive emotions: emotion regulation strategies that promote resilience. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 311–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ullman, J. B. (2001). Structural equation modeling. In B. G. Tabachnick & L. S. Fidell (Eds.), Using multivariate statistics (Fourth ed., pp. 653–771). Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verstraeten, K., Vasey, M. W., Raes, F., & Bijttebier, P. (2012). The mediational role of responses to positive affect in the association between temperament and (hypo)manic symptoms in children. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36, 768–775.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wald, A. (1943). Tests of statistical hypotheses concerning several parameters when the number of observations is large. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 54, 426–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner-Seidler, A., Banks, R., Dunn, B. D., & Moulds, M. L. (2013). An investigation of the relationship between positive affect regulation and depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51, 46–56.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yap, M. B. H., Allen, N. B., & Ladouceur, C. D. (2008). Maternal socialization of positive affect: The impact of invalidation on adolescent emotion regulation and depressive symptomatology. Child Development, 79, 1415–1431.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by Research Foundation—Flanders (Grant G.0923.12 to Patricia Bijttebier and Ph.D. fellowship to Margot Bastin). Filip Raes is supported by KU Leuven Center for Excellence on Generalization Research (GRIP-TT; PF/10/005).

The authors thank Sabrina Baeten, Eline Belmans, Jacintha Brand, Tessa Ceusters, Charlotte Ciers, Nandi De Preter, Sara De Wachter, Aurélie Gielen, Valentina Herman, Lowiese Houssouliez, Pauline Maes, Esther Michiels, Yentl Van der Wee, and Isabelle Yaramis for their help in the data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102 - box 3717, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Margot Bastin, Sabine Nelis, Filip Raes & Patricia Bijttebier

  2. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Michael W. Vasey

Authors
  1. Margot Bastin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sabine Nelis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Filip Raes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Michael W. Vasey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Patricia Bijttebier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Margot Bastin or Sabine Nelis.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Margot Bastin and Sabine Nelis are joint first authors.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 20 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bastin, M., Nelis, S., Raes, F. et al. Party Pooper or Life of the Party: Dampening and Enhancing of Positive Affect in a Peer Context. J Abnorm Child Psychol 46, 399–414 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0296-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0296-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation