Trait rumination, depression, and executive functions in early adolescence

This study examined the association between executive functions (EF), trait rumination, and symptoms and diagnosis of unipolar depression in early adolescence. In addition, the current study examined associations between executive functions and risk for depression due to maternal history of depression. Participants were 486 early adolescents (230 males, 256 females; M age = 12.88 years; SD = .62) and their mothers, who were recruited through local schools as part of the Temple University (TU) Adolescent Cognition and Emotion (ACE) Project. Measures included (a) a semi-structured diagnostic interview of mother and adolescent, (b) youth self-report forms assessing depressive symptoms and trait rumination, (c) mother-report forms assessing demographic information and offspring pubertal status, and (d) behavioral tests of EF (sustained, selective and divided attention, attentional set shifting, and working memory). Deficits in executive function were not associated with higher levels of trait rumination. Better sustained attention was marginally significantly positively associated with higher levels of trait rumination after controlling for concurrent depressive symptoms. Conversely, poorer sustained attention was significantly associated with depressive symptoms after controlling for rumination. Gender moderated the set shifting-rumination association, such that better set shifting accuracy was significantly associated with higher levels of trait rumination in boys only. Diagnosis did not moderate EF-rumination associations. No association was found between EF deficits and adolescent lifetime history of unipolar depression. Likewise, no association was found between EF deficits and maternal lifetime history of unipolar depression. In conclusion, findings do not provide evidence that EF deficits are associated with trait rumination in early adolescence, either alone or in interaction with diagnosis or gender. Rather, findings suggest dissociable patterns of association between EF and depression versus rumination and are more consistent with theories postulating that trait rumination is associated with enhanced performance on some tests of EF. In addition, findings do not provide evidence for an association between EF deficits and lifetime history of depression in early adolescence and do not suggest that deficits are present in adolescents at high risk (due to maternal history of disorder) of depression prior to first onset of disorder. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.