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Cognitive Vulnerability to Depressive Symptoms in Children: The Protective Role of Self-efficacy Beliefs in a Multi-Wave Longitudinal Study

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Abstract

The current multi-wave longitudinal study on childhood examined the role that social and academic self-efficacy beliefs and cognitive vulnerabilities play in predicting depressive symptoms in response to elevations in idiographic stressors. Children (N = 554; males: 51.4 %) attending second and third grade completed measures of depressive symptoms, negative cognitive styles, negative life events, and academic and social self-efficacy beliefs at four time-points over 6 months. Results showed that high levels of academic and social self-efficacy beliefs predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms, whereas negative cognitive styles about consequences predicted higher depression. Furthermore, children reporting higher social self-efficacy beliefs showed a smaller elevation in levels of depressive symptoms when reporting an increases in stress than children with lower social self-efficacy beliefs. Findings point to the role of multiple factors in predicting children’s depression in the long term and commend the promotion of self-efficacy beliefs and the modification of cognitive dysfunctional styles as relevant protective factors.

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  1. Across the four time-points the correlations between fluctuations in hassles and raw score of hassles were positive but moderate, ranging from 0.55 to 0.66. Therefore, we specified a second model with raw scores of hassles instead of fluctuations in hassles; this latter model yielded similar results. The only reported difference was a significant interaction of cognitive style about consequences and hassles in predicting depressive symptoms (b = 0.38; p < 0.05). Moreover, in order to better distinguish between the effect of within-subject and between-subject effect of hassles, we specified a third model including also an interaction of individual average of hassles score across the four time-points; this model yielded similar results: the interaction between change in hassles and social self-efficacy beliefs was significant, whereas the interaction between average score of hassles and social self-efficacy beliefs was not.

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Correspondence to Patrizia Steca.

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J.R.Z. Abela is deceased.

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Steca, P., Abela, J.R.Z., Monzani, D. et al. Cognitive Vulnerability to Depressive Symptoms in Children: The Protective Role of Self-efficacy Beliefs in a Multi-Wave Longitudinal Study. J Abnorm Child Psychol 42, 137–148 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-013-9765-5

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