The Longitudinal Study On Cognitive Vulnerability-stress Model Of Children's Depressive Symptoms

Objective:(1) to explore the age and gender developmental characteristics of children's depression symptoms; (2) to examine the moderating modes of Beck's depression theory and Hopelessness Theory in Chinese children samples respectively; (3) to examine the mediating modes of Beck's depression theory and Hopelessness Theory in Chinese children samples respectively; (4) to explore the influencing mechanism of intergration of Beck's depression theory and hopelessness theory on the relationship of stress events and depression symptoms.Method:In the longitudinal study,318 third grade and 324 seventh grade students completed Children's Depression Inventory(CDI), Children's Hassles Scale(CHAS), Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire(CASQ), Children's Cognitive Style Questionnaire(CCSQ), and Children's Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Revised(CDAS-R) in the initial test and follow-up tests with an interval of 2 month. Third grade students were carried out 4 times Investigation, seventh grade students Investigation 5 times. The moderating modes of cognitive diathesis-strees model (including Beck's depression theory(BT) and Hopelessness Theory (HT))were tested by hierarchical linear model (HLM); and the mediating modes of cognitive diathesis-strees model were tested by multilevel structural equation model (MSEM).Results:(1) For third grade children, the gender significant differences of depressive symptoms were found in second and third follow-up investigations (t(267)=2.77,p<0.01; t(271)=2.79,p<0.01); But for seventh grade children, there were no gender significant difference in all investigations; (2) the significant gender differences of stress events were found in the initial and first follow-up investigations in third grade children (t(303)=2.48, p?0.01; t(313)=2.00,p<0.05), the significant gender difference existed in third follow-up investigation in seventh grade children; (3) The degree of depression symptoms and stress events in third grade children was significantly less than that in seventh grade children (t(611)=-6.10,p<0.001;t(617)=-2.14, p<0.05); (4) The interaction of dysfunctional attitude and stress events couldn't predict the depressive symptoms in third and seventh grade children significantly (?=-0.001, SE=0.018, F(1,564)=0.00, p>0.05;?=0.023, SE=0.022, F(1,812)=1.07, p>0.05); (5) The interaction of HT's weakest link and strss events couldn't predict depressive symptoms in third and seventh grade children (?=-0.005, SE=0.018, F(1,564)=0.09, p> 0.05;?= 0.006, SE=0.020, F(1,883)=0.10, p>0.05); (6) The weakest link of BT and HT×stress events couldn't predict the depressive symptoms in third and seventh grade children (?=-0.002, SE=0.018, F(1,564)=0.01, p> 0.05;?=0.019, SE=0.020, F(1,883)=0.93, p>0.05); (7) The dysfunctional attitude couldn't mediate the relationship of stress events and depressive symptoms in third grade children (?=0.006, SE=0.004, p=0.139); However, the dysfunctional attitude mediated the relationship of stress events and depressive symptoms in seventh grade male children (?=0.005, SE=0.002, p?0.05), not in female children (?=0.001, SE=0.001,?=0.261); (8) The HT weakest link couldn't mediate the relationship of stress events and depressive symptoms in third grade children (?=0.001, SE=0.001,p=0.261); The HT weakest link mediated the relationship of stress events and depressive symptoms in third grade children (?=0.007, SE=0.003, p<0.01); (9) The HT and BT weakest link couldn't mediate the relationship between stress events and depressive symptoms in third grade children (?=0.001, SE=0.001, p=0.407); The HT and BT weakest link mediated the relationship between stress events and depressive symptoms in third grade children (?=0.008, SE=0.003,p?0.01).Conclusion:(1) The stress events predicted depressive symptoms in third grade male children but not in female children; the stress events predicted depressive symptoms in seventh grade children, and there was no gender difference in this grade; (2) The Beck's depression theory might not be applied to Chinese children; (3) The Hopelessness Theory based on weakest link hypothesis also might not be applied to Chinese children; (4) The intergration of Beck's depression theory and Hopelessness theory based on weakest link might not be applied to Chinese children; (5) In third grade children, the dysfunctional attitude and weakest link of HT couldn't mediate the relationship of stress events and depression symptoms, however in seventh grade children, there were mediating effects; (6) The intergration of BT and HT based on weakest link hypothesis couldn't mediate the relationship between stress events and depression symptoms in third grade children, however there was a significant mediating effect in seventh grade children; (7) There might not be significant influence of cognitive diathesis factors on the relationship between stress events and depression symptoms in young age children; However, in elder age children, there were significant mediating effects of cognitive diathesis factors on the relationship between stress events and depression symptoms.