This research examined an integration of cognitive and interpersonal theories of depression by investigating the prospective contribution of depressive rumination to perceptions of social support, the generation of interpersonal stress, and depressive symptoms. It was hypothesized that depressive ruminators would generate stress in their relationships, and that social support discontent would account for this association. Further, depressive rumination and dependent interpersonal stress were examined as joint and unique predictors of depressive symptoms over time. Participants included 122 undergraduate students (M age = 19.78 years, SD = 3.54) who completed assessments of depressive rumination, perceptions of social support, life stress, and depressive symptoms across three waves, each spaced 9 months apart. Results revealed that social support discontent accounted for the prospective association between depressive rumination and dependent interpersonal stress, and that both depressive rumination and dependent interpersonal stress contributed to elevations in depressive symptoms over time. These findings highlight the complex interplay between cognitive and interpersonal processes that confer vulnerability to depression, and have implications for the development of integrated depression-focused intervention endeavors.

Depressive rumination, as assessed by Nolen-Hoeksema's Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ; Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991), predicts the onset, chronicity, and duration of depressed mood. However, some RSQ items contain depressive content and result in a heterogeneous factor structure. After the a priori elimination of items potentially confounded with depressed item content, Treynor et al. (2003) identified two factors within the remaining RSQ rumination subscale that were differentially related to depression: brooding and pondering. However, Treynor et al. (2003) used a non-standard form and administration of the RSQ. The present study sought to address these methodological idiosyncrasies and replicate the factor structure of Treynor et al. (2003) through exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings support the brooding and pondering solution and demonstrate that brooding relates more strongly to depression and anxiety than does pondering. Keywords response styles; depressive rumination; factor analysis; brooding; pondering Since its inception, considerable research has focused on the construct of depressive rumination and its association with the incidence, prevalence, and phenomenology of depression. NolenHoeksema (1998; p. 216) defines depressive rumination, a particular variety of rumination associated with depressed mood, as "focusing passively and repetitively on one's symptoms of distress and the meaning of those symptoms without taking action to correct the problems one identifies." As initially conceptualized within the framework of Nolen-Hoeksema's Response Style Theory (1987), rumination as operationalized in the present study refers to the characteristic manner in which individuals respond to their own symptoms of distress or depressed mood. Despite the clarity of this operationalization, research into depressive rumination has generated mixed results.

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