Depressed Adolescents' Pupillary Response to Peer Acceptance and Rejection: The Role of Rumination.
Heightened emotional reactivity to peer feedback is predictive of adolescents' depression risk. Examining variation in emotional reactivity within currently depressed adolescents may identify subgroups that struggle the most with these daily interactions. We tested whether trait rumination, which amplifies emotional reactions, explained variance in depressed adolescents' physiological reactivity to peer feedback, hypothesizing that rumination would be associated with greater pupillary response to peer rejection and diminished response to peer acceptance. Twenty currently depressed adolescents (12-17) completed a virtual peer interaction paradigm where they received fictitious rejection and acceptance feedback. Pupillary response provided a time-sensitive index of physiological arousal. Rumination was associated with greater initial pupil dilation to both peer rejection and acceptance, and diminished late pupillary response to peer acceptance trials only. Results indicate that depressed adolescents high on trait rumination are more reactive to social feedback regardless of valence, but fail to sustain cognitive-affective load on positive feedback.
Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA. lbs36@pitt.edu.
Lindsey B
LB
Stone
Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.|Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Jennifer S
JS
Silk
Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.|Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Greg J
GJ
Siegle
Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
Kyung Hwa
KH
Lee
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown Medical School, Providence, RI, USA.
Laura R
LR
Stroud
Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Eric E
EE
Nelson
School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Ronald E
RE
Dahl
Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
Neil P
NP
Jones
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012025:Reflex, Pupillary; D012059:Rejection, Psychology
Adolescence; Depression; Emotional reactivity; Peer relationships; Pupil