A longitudinal study of the negative explanatory style and attributions of uncontrollability as predictors of depressive symptoms

We utilized a 7-week longitudinal design in order to examine the interactive effects between the negative explanatory style (or tendency to explain negative events with internal, stable, and global causes) and attributions of uncontrollability for negative events to predict depressive symptoms, something which had not been studied up to now. At Time 1, 130 women undergraduate students completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). At Time 2, 7 weeks later (1 week before final examinations), BDI was again completed by 101 of those women. The results showed that people with a negative explanatory style who explain negative events through uncontrollable causes at Time 1 showed higher depression scores at Time 2. These findings show that attributions of uncontrollability for negative situations increase the risk to develop depressive symptoms in people with a negative explanatory style, and suggest that it is necessary to consider these attributions when effects of negative explanatory style are studied.