Abstract
Despite its strong relation to depression and theorized development across childhood and adolescence, cognitive schema organization
has not been explored in early adolescence, a sensitive developmental period for first depression onset. Schema organization
is theorized to derive from childhood cognitive internalizations of caregiving relationships, such as critical parenting experiences
(e.g., Young et al. in Schema therapy: a practitioner’s guide. Guilford Press, New York, 2003). Thus, the current investigation considers the organization of positive and negative schemas with youth’s perceptions of
parental warmth and psychological control and self-reported emotional functioning. Participants were 198 boys and girls aged
9–14 years who completed the Psychological Distance Scaling Task, measures of perceptions of parenting behaviors, anxiety
symptoms and depression symptoms. Consistent with hypotheses, higher depression, but not anxiety symptoms were associated
with a loosely-interconnected positive schema organization and a tightly-interconnected negative schema organization. Parental responsiveness emerged as the strongest predictor of negative schema structure. Implications
for cognitive-developmental theories of depression and early identification of depression risk are discussed.
has not been explored in early adolescence, a sensitive developmental period for first depression onset. Schema organization
is theorized to derive from childhood cognitive internalizations of caregiving relationships, such as critical parenting experiences
(e.g., Young et al. in Schema therapy: a practitioner’s guide. Guilford Press, New York, 2003). Thus, the current investigation considers the organization of positive and negative schemas with youth’s perceptions of
parental warmth and psychological control and self-reported emotional functioning. Participants were 198 boys and girls aged
9–14 years who completed the Psychological Distance Scaling Task, measures of perceptions of parenting behaviors, anxiety
symptoms and depression symptoms. Consistent with hypotheses, higher depression, but not anxiety symptoms were associated
with a loosely-interconnected positive schema organization and a tightly-interconnected negative schema organization. Parental responsiveness emerged as the strongest predictor of negative schema structure. Implications
for cognitive-developmental theories of depression and early identification of depression risk are discussed.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-11
- DOI 10.1007/s10608-011-9365-z
- Authors
- M. N. Lumley, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
- D. J. A. Dozois, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
- K. H. Hennig, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
- A. Marsh, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
- Journal Cognitive Therapy and Research
- Online ISSN 1573-2819
- Print ISSN 0147-5916