When depression breeds contempt: Reassurance seeking, self-esteem, and rejection of depressed college students by their roommates.

Abstract

To test Coyne's (1976b) theory of depression, students' levels of depressive symptoms, reassurance seeking, and self-esteem were assessed at Time 1, and their same-gender roommates' appraisals of them were assessed 5 weeks later. Mildly depressed students engaged in the type of reassurance seeking described by Coyne. Among men, but not women, mildly depressed students were rejected if they strongly sought reassurance and had low self-esteem but not if they did not seek reassurance or had high self-esteem. Although induction of depressed symptoms in roommates did occur, this contagion effect did not account for the depression-rejection relationship. The prediction that unsupportive, intolerant, or unempathic others would be particularly likely to respond with rejection to reassurance-seeking depressed students with low self-esteem received partial support. Implications for future work on the interpersonal aspects of depression are discussed.

Depression Proneness and Reactions to a Depressive Stimulus

“…If depression-prone people have more empathy for those suffering from depression, because they understand how debilitating it can be, then they might be less rejecting of the currently depressed. This result would be consistent with findings that prior experience with a particular need facilitates empathy for others with that need (Batson et al, 1996) and with research linking higher trait empathy in one person with less rejection of another (Joiner, Alfano, & Metalsky, 1992).…”

“…The RSEQ consists of the 10 items of the Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale, reworded so that it serves as a measure of the esteem that one holds for another person (e.g., "I feel that she is a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others"). The RSEQ has high internal consistency (α = .86; Joiner et al, 1992) and convergent validity (Swann et al, 1992).…”

“…Each participant listened and responded to both depressive and non-depressive versions of the audiotapes. Male and female versions of these tapes were created, with the female version presented to female participants and the male version presented to male participants, based on studies that examined rejection in same-sex roommate pairs (e.g., Joiner et al, 1992). Because a major stylistic difference between non-depressed and depressed speech is that depressed speech is significantly more monotonous (Gotlib & Robinson, 1982), the actors were coached to use a monotonous tone of voice when reading the depressive script.…”

“…Given no main effect of depression vulnerability on rejection, we could not test the role of empathy and contagion beliefs as mediators between depression vulnerability and rejection (Baron and Kenny, 1986). However, the direct relations among empathy, contagion beliefs, and rejection can be explored in the sample as a whole, and may help to identify potential mediators of a depression-rejection relationship (as suggested by Joiner et al, 1992).…”

Characterizing Interpersonal Difficulties Among Young Adults Who Engage in Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Using a Daily Diary

“…Reassurance Seeking-Reassurance seeking behavior was assessed with four items from the Depressive Interpersonal Relationships Inventory (DIRI; Joiner, Alfano, & Metalsky, 1992), which are rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = "no, not at all" to 7 = "yes, very much"). Example items include "in general, do you find yourself often asking people you feel close to how they truly feel about you?"…”