Rumination and quality of life among Northern Plains Indians

Therapeutic mechanisms targeting multiple mental health disorders are key for providing treatment services with high-disparity, low-resource populations. Rumination, a cognitive response style, is a well-recognized transdiagnostic factor across disorders in the general population (Arditte et al., 2016; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991). This study explored the influence of rumination, and mediational effect of mental health disorder, on Quality of Life among a sample of 585 Northern Plains Indian (NPI) women and men. Using secondary data from a Mood Disorder Assessment Validation study, parallel mediation path analyses indicated rumination did not have a direct influence on quality of life. However, rumination indicated higher anxiety (R² = .38, p < .001), depression (R² = .60, p < .001), and substance use symptoms (R² = .14, p < .001). As rumination increased, significant increases occurred in severity of symptoms reported for women and men for all diagnoses- but lower perceived quality of life occurred only in the presence of depressive symptoms (women, B = -28.19, p < .001; men, B = -20.15, p < .001). Significant differences arose between NPI women and men, with women reporting higher rumination, anxiety, and depression and men reporting higher substance use. Based on these results, rumination is useful as a transdiagnostic factor for NPIs, as rumination helped uncover maladaptive coping mechanisms among NPIs in the sample. In addition, quality of life assessments can help target maladaptive coping in treatment by taking a holistic view of well-being that accounts for risk factors while supporting traditional views of healing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).