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Within-person Changes in Co-rumination and Rumination in Adolescence: Examining Heterogeneity and the Moderating Roles of Gender and Time

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Abstract

Although previous work has consistently identified positive associations between co-rumination and rumination during adolescence, little to no research has examined how this relationship operates on the person-specific level. The current study aimed to extend current developmental theories of co-rumination and rumination by examining within-person associations between these constructs. Survey data was collected from 1502 adolescents (Mage = 13.20; 52% girls; 52% non-Hispanic White) every six-months across the span of 3.5 years. The results showed that at time-points when adolescents reported co-ruminating more than their usual level, they reported concurrent increases in rumination. This association was stronger for boys and strengthened over time. Despite substantial between-person heterogeneity, 97% of adolescents showed positive associations between co-rumination and rumination. This research has important implications for mental health professionals, school systems, and parents who may look to teach adolescents about effective emotion-regulation.

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Notes

  1. Concurrent associations are the focus of the current manuscript, but lagged analyses can be found in supplemental material on OSF (https://osf.io/cu89f/?view_only=9c5fc91b43964db5bd8d0d3b110d41fa).

  2. Although most prior research suggests that co-rumination precedes rumination, and not the other way around, an alternative model was also run where the association between within-subject rumination and co-rumination was assessed; It was hypothesized that results would be conceptually very similar across these models.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Alvord Foundation for funding data collection. We would also like to thank all of the schools and adolescents who participated over the past four years.

Authors' Contributions

A.D. executed the statistical analyses, drafted the manuscript, and substantially contributed to the revisions of the manuscript; T.F. executed statistical analyses, drafted the manuscript, and substantially contributed to the revisions of the manuscript; A.V. collected all of the data, assisted T.F. in preliminary analyses, and edited all drafts of the manuscript; C.O. managed data collection, procured funding for the study, participated in the design of the study, and assisted in editing all drafts of the manuscript; N.B. assisted with analyses and data visualizations and provided consultation on revisions regarding statistical analyses. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by the Alvord foundation.

Data Sharing and Declaration

The datasets needed to run the analyses and all R scripts are available on OSF (https://osf.io/cu89f/?view_only=9c5fc91b43964db5bd8d0d3b110d41fa). All supplemental materials are also included on this page.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Columbia University Department of Psychology, 1180 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Ana M. DiGiovanni, Anna Vannucci & Niall Bolger

  2. Boston University School of Medicine Department of Neurology, 720 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    Tessa Fagle

  3. Florida State University Human Development and Family Science, 1107 W Call Street, Tallahassee, FL, 32304, USA

    Christine McCauley Ohannessian

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  1. Ana M. DiGiovanni
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Correspondence to Ana M. DiGiovanni.

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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.

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These authors contributed equally: Ana M. DiGiovanni, Tessa Fagle

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DiGiovanni, A.M., Fagle, T., Vannucci, A. et al. Within-person Changes in Co-rumination and Rumination in Adolescence: Examining Heterogeneity and the Moderating Roles of Gender and Time. J Youth Adolescence 51, 1958–1969 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01647-9

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