The Interaction of Co-rumination, Coping Strategies, and Stress in Predicting Depression and Anxiety

Abstract

Co-rumination, defined as a repetitive, problem-focused dialogue with close friends, has been demonstrated to be a cognitive vulnerability factor for both depression and anxiety. This risk factor has been posited as one explanation to why women have higher rates of these mental health issues than men, despite also reporting higher rates of social support. Due to co-rumination's relationship to both adaptive and maladaptive outcomes, recent research has proposed that individual's coping abilities may be important in determining whether co-rumination predicts emotional difficulties. The current study proposed that problem-solving, emotion coping, and different types of social support would interact with co-rumination in order to differentially predict depression and anxiety. Current stress level was predicted to also interact with co-rumination and coping variables to predict these outcomes. A sample of 63 female undergraduate students completed measures of co-rumination, coping, stress, and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Findings indicated that co-rumination, coping, and stress did not interact to predict depressive symptoms. Functions of social support individually predicted depressive symptoms. The relationship between co-rumination and anxiety varied as a function of both appraisal support and stress level. The present findings highlight the need for more research in this area, especially further exploration of the role of co-rumination in anxiety.