Resilience to depressive symptoms: The buffering effects of enhancing cognitive style and positive life events

Background and Objectives: There are two lines of research examining the role of cognition in depression. One line of research focuses on risk for depression, and shows that a negative cognitive style interacts with stressful life events to create depression. The second line of research focuses on recovery, and shows that an enhancing cognitive style interacts with positive life events to reduce depression. The goal of this study was to integrate these two areas and provide a more comprehensive test of the cognitive model of depression. Methods: A 4-week prospective longitudinal design was used to test the interaction between cognitive style (both negative and enhancing) and life events (both negative and positive) in a sample of undergraduates (n = 128). Results: Cognitively vulnerable individuals were buffered from the depressive effects of stress if they also possessed an enhancing cognitive style or experienced high numbers of positive life events. Individuals with low levels of negative cognitive style and life stress, but high levels of enhancing cognitive style or positive life events were the most resilient to depressive symptoms. Limitations: Future research is needed to determine if the results of this study generalize to a more diverse sample as well as to clinically significant forms of depression. Conclusions: The results provide some of the first evidence for the protective role of enhancing cognitive style and positive live events among vulnerable individuals. These findings underscore the importance of examining a broader environmental context when investigating risk and resiliency to depression. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.