Ruminative thought style, emotion regulation and depression in adolescents

Pages:49-55
Harikesh Kumar Yadav and Pumima Awasthi (Department of Psychology, B.H.U., F.S.S., Varanasi)

Adolescence is truly the years of creativity, empathy, romanticism, and generous spirit of adventure but it is also considered as a period of storm and stress.The stress and anxiety associated with physical appearance, achievement , failure, and lack of confidence in social relationship likely to guide rumination and depression. T.he inability to find appropriate avenue, lack of information and social pressures further compound this trend. Studies indicate that the lifetime prevalence of depression in adolescents varies between 15 to 20 per cent, suggesting that depression frequently has its onset in adolescence. It is evident that adolescents do not suffer distress passively; they attempt to manage the demands placed on them through various coping styles. In particular, emotion-focused coping is more likely when causes of distress is unchangeable and the self is appraised as helpless and lacking in control. Emotion regulation is a central correlate of behavioural and emotional problems in adolescents. Rumination is characterized as an emotion regulation strategy that may take adolescents to the negative directions of the different aspects of their lfves. Ruminative thinking over one’s life are risk factors because such thinking patterns interact with the stressors and increase the experience of depression in adolescence. Therefore, it is essential to determine how adolescents confront negative experiences to adaptively analyze them without engaging in ruminative thinking . Key prevention and intervention techniques that improve stress management skills and enable adolescents to deal effectively with challenges of everyday life are discussed. This may be also helpful to bring changes and modify the existing intervention programmes and formulate new ones to meet the specific needs of the adolescents.