Negative Attachment Cognitions and Emotional Distress in Mainland Chinese Adolescents: A Prospective Multiwave Test of Vulnerability-Stress and Stress Generation Models

Abstract

Objective The present study examined the relation between attachment cognitions, stressors, and emotional distress in a sample of Chinese adolescents. Specifically, it was examined whether negative attachment cognitions predicted depression and anxiety symptoms, and if a vulnerability-stress or stress generation model best explained the relation between negative attachment cognitions and internalizing symptoms. Method Participants included 558 adolescents (310 females and 248 males) from an urban school in Changsha, and 592 adolescents (287 females and 305 males) from a rural school in Liuyang, both in Hunan province located in mainland China. Participants completed self-report measures of negative attachment cognitions at baseline, and self-report measures of negative events, depression symptoms, and anxiety symptoms at baseline and at regular one month intervals for an overall 6-month follow-up (i.e., six follow-up assessments). Results Higher levels of negative attachment cognitions predicted prospective depression and anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, support was found for a stress generation model that partially mediated this longitudinal association. No support was found for a vulnerability-stress model. Conclusion Overall, these findings highlight new developmental pathways for development of depression and anxiety symptoms in mainland Chinese adolescents.

Recent Stressful Life Events (SLE) and Adolescent Mental Health: Initial Validation of the LEIA, a New Checklist for SLE Assessment According to Their Severity, Interpersonal, and Dependent Nature

“…or "Have you lost a friendship that was important to you? "; Cohen et al, 2013;Espina & Calvete, 2017;Flynn & Rudolph, 2011;Hamilton et al, 2014;Hankin et al, 2010;Krackow & Rudolph, 2008;Rudolph et al, 2000;Shapero, Hamilton, Liu, Abramson, & Alloy, 2013;Vrshek-Schallhorn et al, 2015). Moreover, our findings expand the importance of this type of SLEs to other symptoms such as somatization, and internalizing behavior, in line with Hankin et al (2010).…”

Personality Predispositions in Chinese Adolescents: The Relation Between Self-Criticism, Dependency, and Prospective Internalizing Symptoms

“…The present study was part of a larger multi-site research project conducted in mainland China (see Abela et al, 2011; Cohen et al, 2012, for further details concerning other assessments used in the study). Written consent was obtained from parents and adolescents prior to the start of the study.…”

“…Specifically, hopelessness and dysfunctional attitudes (Abela et al, 2011) and negative attachment cognitions (Cohen et al, 2012) were included in separate, supplementary analyses with self-criticism and dependency to provide a more rigorous test of our hypotheses. Of importance, a similar pattern of findings for both self-criticism and dependency reported below emerged when including these additional constructs.…”

Role of Virtues and Perceived Life Stress in Affecting Psychological Symptoms Among Chinese College Students

“…Accordingly, some individuals are more likely than others to develop psychological disorders because they tend to exhibit a maladaptive appraisal of stressful life events, and vice versa. 30,31 The aforementioned proposition suggests that virtues exhibit different functions in the face of different stressful events (H 2 ).…”