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Neediness and Interpersonal Life Stress: Does Congruency Predict Depression?

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Abstract

Dependency is linked to depression in clinical theory and research, although inadequate evidence exists establishing dependency as a stable personality risk factor for depression. The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, D’Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 383–389) has shown two subfactors within dependency, “neediness” or more immature dependency, and “connectedness” or more mature dependency (Rude & Burnham, 1995, Cognitive Therapy and Research, 19, 323–340). A 2.5 year prospective study of 168 nondepressed individuals, a subset of the larger Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) Project sample, was used to examine whether neediness was a risk factor for major depression. Results demonstrated that neediness was a stable risk factor for major depression, controlling for concurrent depressive symptoms, but not controlling for past depressive episodes. Further, this study evaluated the congruency hypothesis that individuals become depressed after experiencing stressful life events matching their particular vulnerabilities. No evidence was found for congruency with respect to neediness, as indicated by a nonsignificant neediness × interpersonal stress interaction. These findings provide partial support for considering neediness a stable depressogenic personality vulnerability. They also augment the accumulating inconsistencies in tests of the congruency hypothesis.

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Notes

  1. A separate a priori categorization system was developed by our group (Francis-Raniere et al., 2006) that was designed to specifically tap into the psychological concerns of the dependent or self-critical individual. Each participant's life event indices were computed under both systems, with the indices correlating not smaller than r = .96. Therefore, we report only the discussed method in the present study, but clearly our results do not change as a function of our chosen system of event classification.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th Street, Weiss Hall, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Alex Cogswell & Lauren B. Alloy

  2. Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Jelena Spasojevic

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  1. Alex Cogswell
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  2. Lauren B. Alloy
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  3. Jelena Spasojevic
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Correspondence to Alex Cogswell.

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Cogswell, A., Alloy, L.B. & Spasojevic, J. Neediness and Interpersonal Life Stress: Does Congruency Predict Depression?. Cogn Ther Res 30, 427–443 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9052-7

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