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Perceived Competence and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Attributional Style

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Abstract

This longitudinal study examined the interactive effects of depressive attributional style and multiple domains of perceived competence on depressive symptoms among 431 adolescents. Our structural equation modeling with latent factor interactions indicated that (1) for girls with a higher depressive attributional style, lower perceived competence in physical appearance was predictive of depressive symptoms over a 2.5 year period, and (2) regardless of gender, among adolescents with a higher depressive attributional style, lower athletic competence was predictive of higher depressive symptoms 6 months later, which in turn were related to higher depressive symptoms 2 years later. Significant main effects suggested that lower levels of perceived social acceptance were associated with higher subsequent levels of depressive symptoms but only for boys. These findings have implications for understanding the roles of perceived competence and attributional style in predicting depressive symptoms among adolescent girls and boys.

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Notes

  1. Alpha may be low because of lack of homogeneity of variances among items. As Hilsman and Garber [29] suggested, lack of internal consistency may not be as problematic if the underlying attributional style is not a unitary factor but consists of more heterogeneous domain-specific attributions that have an additive effect in the same direction, as we show in the results of confirmatory factor analysis.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH76141) awarded to Thomas H. Ollendick.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology (MC 0436), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Jungmeen Kim-Spoon & Thomas H. Ollendick

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, 43606, USA

    Laura D. Seligman

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  1. Jungmeen Kim-Spoon
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  2. Thomas H. Ollendick
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  3. Laura D. Seligman
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Correspondence to Jungmeen Kim-Spoon.

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Kim-Spoon, J., Ollendick, T.H. & Seligman, L.D. Perceived Competence and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Attributional Style. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 43, 612–630 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0287-0

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