Journal of Depression and Anxiety
Open Access

Abstract

Affective Reactivity Predicts Cognitive Reactivity to Induced Stress in Adolescence

Sarah Ingrid Crysta, Jordan Simonson, Amy Mezulis and Kara Pegram

The cognitive vulnerability-stress model of depression suggests that maladaptive cognitive responses to stress place individuals at risk for developing depression. Less is understood about the process by which these maladaptive responses are generated. One hypothesis is that affective reactivity elicits depressogenic cognitive responses in the context of stress exposure. We hypothesized that the immediate experience of negative affect following induced stress (state-NA) would precede and influence subsequent depressogenic cognitive responses. We also predicted that trait cognitive style would moderate the relationship between state affective and cognitive reactivity. In two college samples (N1 = 84, M1 = 20.23 years; N2 = 67, M2 = 20.02 years) we found that state-NA predicted cognitive reactivity. This relationship was moderated by pre-existing cognitive style for some, but not all, depressogenic cognitive responses to induced stress. Our findings provide insight into the process by which maladaptive cognitive responses to stress may be elicited, and lend support to the link between affective and cognitive vulnerabilities to depression.