ABSTRACT
Cognitive Theories of Depression ................................................................... 336 Hopelessness Theory ................................................................................... 337
Depressogenic Inferential Style About Causes ...................................... 338 Depressogenic Inferential Style About Consequences .......................... 339 Depressogenic Inferential Style About the Self..................................... 339
Beck’s Cognitive Theory .............................................................................. 340 Response Styles Theory .............................................................................. 341
Cole’s Competency-Based Model of Depression ............................................. 342 Personality Predispositions to Depression ................................................ 343 Weisz’s Contingency-Competence-Control Model of Depression ............. 344 Empirical Status of Theories of Cognitive Vulnerability to
Depression in Adolescents ...................................................................... 345 Methodological Issues ..................................................................................... 346
Approaches Towards Examining the Effect of Stress on Depressive Symptoms ............................................................................. 346
Conceptualization of the Relation Among Multiple Vulnerabilities ....... 348 The Multiplicative Approach ................................................................. 348 The Additive Approach .......................................................................... 349 The Weakest Link Approach .................................................................. 350
Priming of Cognitive Vulnerability Factors ............................................... 351 Developmental Issues ...................................................................................... 352
The Emergence of Cognitive Vulnerability Factors ................................... 352 The Consolidation of Degree of Inter-Relatedness of Cognitive
Vulnerability Factors .............................................................................. 354 The Consolidation of Cognitive Vulnerability Factors ......................... 354 The Inter-Relatedness of Cognitive Vulnerability Factors .................... 357
Developmental Changes in Levels of Cognitive Vulnerability and Stress .....................................................................................................358 Age-Related Differences .......................................................................... 358 Sex Differences ........................................................................................ 359
A Developmental Psychopathology Model of Vulnerability to Depression ................................................................................................ 360
Future Directions ............................................................................................. 362 References ........................................................................................................ 363
Research examining the epidemiology of depression suggests that ado-lescence may be a critical period for understanding the development of this disorder for two reasons. First, although during childhood, sex differences in depression are not reliably found, during the transition from early to middle adolescence (i.e., ages 12-15) sex differences emerge, with girls reporting higher levels of both depressive symptoms (Angold, Erkanli, Silberg, Eaves, & Costello, 2002; Twenge & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2002) and disorders (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, & Angold, 2003; Hankin et al., 1998) than boys. Second, the majority of individuals who develop depression experience their fi rst clinically signifi cant episode during the transition from middle to late adolescence (i.e., ages 15-18). Within this brief window of time, there is a dramatic sixfold increase in the prevalence of depression (Hankin et al., 1998; Kessler, Avenei, & Merikangas, 2001). Prevalence rates remain at similarly high levels throughout adulthood, with adult depression typically being preceded by adolescent depression (Kim-Cohen, Caspi, & Moffi tt, 2003). Such startling facts strongly argue for the need to identify vulnerability factors to depression in adolescence so that intervention efforts can be initiated prior to the surge in depression rates and before sensitization factors lead to recurrences (Monroe & Harkness, 2005).
