Negative feedback-seeking in depression: The moderating roles of rumination and interpersonal life stress

Swann's self-verification theory proposes that negative feedback seeking (NFS)-the solicitation of negative feedback from others that confirms one's self-views-works in a negative cycle to maintain and exacerbate depression in the face of interpersonal stress. We propose a cognitive-interpersonal integration account of NFS such that this maladaptive behavior prospectively predicts depression only among those with a trait tendency to ruminate on the causes and consequences of depressed mood and stress.

Participants included 91 young adults who were over-sampled for a lifetime history of a unipolar depressive disorder (age 17-33; 69% women; 67% lifetime depressive disorder). At baseline, participants completed a structured diagnostic interview and self-report measures of NFS, rumination, and depression symptoms. In addition, participants engaged in an interpersonal rejection task (the Yale Interpersonal Stressor) followed by a behavioral measure of NFS. At a 3-month follow-up, depression symptoms were again assessed by self-report and exposure to stressful interpersonal life events in the intervening period were assessed with a rigorous contextual interview and independent rating system.

Controlling for baseline depression severity, greater self-reported, and behaviorally assessed NFS predicted greater follow-up depression severity, but only among those with higher trait tendency to ruminate. For self-reported NFS, this association was further moderated by level of interpersonal, but not noninterpersonal, life events experienced over follow-up.

These findings suggest that rumination may represent a modifiable intervention target that could break the vicious interpersonal cycle of depression and, thus, mitigate the depressogenic effects of NFS.