Ruminative Thinking in Chronic Depression: Concept and Validity of Measures

Abstract

Despite large amount of empirical evidence in support of rumination as a risk factor of depression onset and chronification, theoretical foundations of ruminative thinking are still being discussed. This includes the issue of so-called constructive, or reflec¬tive, ruminations. Objective: This study gives a theoretical review of different views on rumination, empirically tests the idea of constructive and non-constructive rumi¬native thinking, and tests the validity of the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS, Rus sian version) [38]. Study design: We conducted a factor analysis of adapted RRS, as well as an intercorrelational analysis of this scale, Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-r), and the COPE Inventory; hypotheses were tested in a general population group (n=476) and two clinical groups (patients with depressive disorders, n=53, and patients with different diagnoses with recent suicide attempts, n=41). Results: Our theoretical review examines ruminative thinking as a dysfunctional coping strategy (E. Watkins) from the perspective of the structural-dynamic model of thinking in the course of creative problem-solving (V. Zaretsky, A. Kholmogorova). Rumination is conceptualized as getting stuck «in a loop» at certain levels of organization of cognitive processes, which substitutes motivation focus on actual problem solving. The resulting four-factor structure of RRS has good psychometric properties and strong correla¬tions with different psychopathological symptoms and dysfunctional coping strategies (namely, psychological and behavioral avoidance and venting negative emotions); these correlations are found in all resulting factors but one, which implies that it may have a special status. Conclusion: The Russian version of RRS shows good preliminary psychometric characteristics and is viable for practical purposes. The idea of construc¬tive rumination discussed in literature has not been confirmed empirically. ¬