The Associations Between Everyday Discrimination, Brooding, Reflection, and Symptoms of Depression in Adolescents

Our study explored the relations between perceived everyday discrimination (PED), brooding rumination (dwelling on negative feelings), reflection rumination (attempting to understand a negative state), and depressive symptoms among adolescents. Previous research has identified PED as a risk factor for depressive symptoms across diverse populations, and there is evidence that brooding mediates the relation between PED and symptoms of depression in adolescents. However, we addressed a gap in the literature by examining how reflection, which is hypothesized to be a more adaptive coping response than brooding, is related to PED and depressive symptoms. Our sample of 232 adolescents (89 female) aged 13 to 16 (M = 14.18, SD = 0.54) identified as Black (46.5%), White (37.0%), Mixed Race (12.2%), Hispanic (1.7%), and Other (2.6%). Participants completed self-report measures of PED (attributable to any self-identified distinguishing characteristic), brooding and reflection, and depressive symptoms. In accordance with our hypotheses, we found that PED was positively associated with both brooding and reflection. Additionally, PED and brooding, but not reflection, were positively associated with depressive symptoms when accounting for the impact of the other variables in the model. Our results add to existing evidence that brooding is a less adaptive form of rumination than reflection. Further, our results corroborate previous findings that brooding plays a role in the association between PED and depressive symptoms. Testing the differential mediating effects of brooding and reflection in the relation between PED and adolescent depressive symptoms in a prospective study design will be an important direction for future research.

Automated summary

The study found that perceived everyday discrimination was positively associated with both brooding and reflection, and that both perceived everyday discrimination and brooding were positively associated with depressive symptoms, while reflection did not show a significant correlation with depressive symptoms.