Vulnerability to depression: Cognitive reactivity and parental bonding in high-risk individuals.

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Abstract
Although various conceptual proposals have suggested that disruptions in childhood bonding processes may be linked to the origins of these cognitive structures, little research has tested these proposals. This study assessed the information processing of vulnerable individuals and its relationship to childhood bonding. Formerly depressed (vulnerable) and never depressed (nonvulnerable) individuals participated in a mood induction task followed by an attentional allocation task. Results indicated that vulnerable individuals uniquely diverted attention toward negative stimuli when they were in a negative mood. Furthermore, level of maternal caring was found to be associated with performance on this task for vulnerable individuals in this mood state. These data support the idea that cognitive variables form a pathway between troublesome parental-child/adolescent interactions and depression. Diathesis-stress models of depression suggest that depresso- genic cognitive structures are dormant until activated by stressful events (e.g., Beck, 1967; Ingram, 1984; Ingram, Miranda, & Segal, 1998; Teasdale, 1983). Segal and Shaw (1986) have described these structures as "latent but reactive" and argued that once triggered they initiate a pattern of negative self-referenced infor- mation processing that leads to depression. Segal and Ingram (1994) have noted that research support for these diathesis-stress models has grown substantially. In particular, converging lines of research have shown that vulnerable individuals process informa- tion dysfunctionally when encountering situations that activate depressive cognitive structures (e.g., Hedlund & Rude, 1995; Ingrain, Bernet, & McLaughlin, 1994; Miranda, Gross, Persons, & Hahn, 1998; Miranda, Persons, & Byers, 1990; Teasdale & Dent, 1987). Moreover, the processes suggested by diathesis-stress mod- els have been shown to predict depression relapse in previously treated patients (Segal, Gemar, & Williams, 1999) and to function in high-risk children as young as 8 years old (Taylor & Ingrain, 1999). Thus, depression-prone individuals appear to distinctly evidence negative cognitions, but these cognitions are not acces- sible until they experience an activating event. Several theories spanning relatively diverse conceptual origins

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