Measures of emotional health and styles of responding to negative moods were obtained for 137 students 14 days before the Loma Prieta earthquake. A follow-up was done 10 days again 7 weeks after the earthquake to test predictions about which of the students would show the most enduring symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress. Regression analysis showed that students who, before the earthquake, already had elevated levels of depression and stress symptoms and a ruminative style of responding to their symptoms had more depression and stress symptoms for both follow-ups. Students who were exposed to more dangerous or difficult circumstances because of the earthquake also had elevated symptom levels 10 days after the earthquake. Similarly, students who, during the 10 days after the earthquake, had more ruminations about the earthquake were still more likely to have high levels of depressive and stress symptoms 7 weeks after the earthquake.

We examined the relationship between ruminative and distracting styles of responding to depressed mood and the duration of mood. Seventy-nine subjects kept accounts of their moods and responses to their moods for 30 consecutive days. The majority of subjects (83%) showed consistent styles of responding to depressed mood. Regression analyses suggested that the more ruminative responses subjects engaged in, the longer their periods of depressed mood, even after taking into account the initial severity of the mood. In addition, women were more likely than men to have a ruminative response style and on some measures to have more severe and long-lasting periods of depression.

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The effects of different types of responses to a depressed mood on the duration and severity of the mood were examined. On the basis of Nolen-Hoeksema's (1987) response styles theory of depression, it was hypothesized that distracting, active responses would be more effective in alleviating a depressed mood than would ruminative, passive responses. A depressed mood was induced in 35 male and 34 female Ss, and subjects were randomly assigned to engage in 1 of 4 types of responses: an active task that distracted them from their mood; a passive, distracting task; an active task designed to lead to ruminations about their mood; or a passive, ruminative task. As predicted, the greatest remediation of depressed mood was found in Ss in the distracting-active response condition, followed in order by the distracting-passive, ruminative-active, and ruminative-passive response conditions. Degree of rumination had a greater impact on remediation of depressive affect than level of activity, with greater rumination leading to lesser remediation of depressive affect. In addition, the effects of the response tasks were limited to depressed mood. The implications of these results for interventions with depressed persons are discussed.Most individuals become mildly to moderately depressed at least occasionally. Such episodes can be caused by a large variety of psychosocial and biological factors (Beckham & Leber, 1985). For most people, the symptoms of depression never become very severe and pass in a few hours or days. For some individuals, however, these mild to moderate depressive episodes become progressively more severe and last several days, weeks, or months. What are the causes of the individual differences in the duration and severity of depressive episodes?In the study described here, we tested the hypothesis that the ways individuals respond to their symptoms of depression influence the severity and duration of depressed mood. This hypothesis is based on Nolen-Hoeksema's (1987) response styles theory of depression. According to this theory, ruminative responses to a depressed mood lead to longer lasting and more severe episodes of depression, whereas distracting responses shorten depressive episodes. Below we describe this theory in more detail and review previous studies relevant to the theory. Ruminative and Distracting Responses to DepressionThe response styles theory of depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987) proposes that individuals who engage in ruminative responses to depressed mood will experience amplification and prolongation of the mood, whereas individuals who engage in distracting responses to their depressed mood will experience relief from that mood. Ruminative responses are cognitionsWe thank Miriam Harris and Karen Schlaepfer for their assistance in conducting this experiment. We also thank Barbara L. Fredrickson and Ghassan Ghandour for their comments on earlier drafts.

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