RT Journal Article
T1 Attentional disengagement from emotional information predicts future depression via changes in ruminative brooding: A five-month longitudinal eye-tracking study
A1 Sánchez López, Álvaro
A1 Koster, Ernst H.W.
A1 Van Put, Jill
A1 De Raedt, Rudi
AB Brooding is considered a maladaptive form of emotion regulation linking adverse events to increases in depressive symptoms. The "Impaired Disengagement Hypothesis" (Koster, De Lissnyder, Derakshan & De Raedt, 2011) proposes that attentional disengagement processes are a main mechanism involved in the emergence and maintenance of brooding responses. In this study we tested prospective predictions derived from this framework, relying on eye-tracking to assess direct processes of attentional disengagement from emotional faces (i.e., time to move gaze away from either positive or negative faces when prompted to fixate a different face). A sample of undergraduates (n = 89) completed measures of depression, brooding, and the attentional disengagement task at baseline (beginning of the semester) and five months later (immediately after a stressful period: examination). The results supported a moderated mediation model where slower disengagement from positive faces at baseline (predictor) predicted decreases in brooding during the follow-up period (mediator), indirectly predicting decreased depressive symptoms at follow-up (outcome) in individuals encountering more adverse events during the follow-up period (moderator). Furthermore, analyses also supported a moderation model where more habitual brooding at baseline (predictor) predicted slower disengagement from negative faces at follow-up (outcome) in individuals encountering more adverse events (moderator). Our findings support bidirectional influences between attentional disengagement and brooding and highlight protective attention patterns with implications for the development of efficient strategies for the prevention of depression.
PB Elsevier
SN 0005-7967
YR 2019
FD 2019-07
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/116303
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/116303
LA eng
NO Sanchez-Lopez, A., Koster, E. H. W., Van Put, J., & De Raedt, R. (2019). Attentional disengagement from emotional information predicts future depression via changes in ruminative brooding: A five-month longitudinal eye-tracking study. Behaviour research and therapy, 118, 30–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2019.03.013
NO Research Foundation Flanders
NO Universiteit Gent
NO Comunidad de Madrid
DS Docta Complutense
RD 9 abr 2025