Abstract

Depressive rumination is repetitive thought about one’s depressive symptoms,
their causes, meanings, and potential consequences. Research has shown that depressive rumination is associated with dysphoria. Depressive rumination has been shown to consist of subtypes, with some subtypes being potentially less adaptive than others. Research using the Rumination on Sadness Scale (Conway, Csank, Holm, & Blake, 2000) has identified two rumination subtypes: meaning searching and repetitive thinking. Meaning searching reflects one’s attempt to understand and find meaning in one’s sadness, whereas repetitive thinking reflects repetitiveness and uncontrollability of one’s thoughts on one’s sadness. Two hypotheses were made. First, repetitive thinking, but not meaning searching, was hypothesized to lead to more dysphoria over time. Second, it was hypothesized that meaning searching would lead to more repetitive thinking, and repetitive thinking would lead to more meaning searching over time. Participants in this 2-year longitudinal study were 349 older adults who had recently retired. The findings did not support the first hypothesis. In contrast, findings indicated that dysphoria may lead to more repetitive thinking. As for the second hypothesis, meaning searching predicted increased repetitive thinking, and repetitive thinking led to more meaning searching a year later although these associations were not strong. These findings emerged when taking into account several factors related to dysphoria and depressive rumination, including neuroticism, control beliefs, age, and gender. Based on these findings, it can be argued that depressive rumination might be more suitably conceptualized as a symptom of depression rather than a process that leads to more depression.