The effects of current mood and prior depressive history on self-schematic processing in children

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology Vol. 43; no. 1; p. 149
• Main Authors: Zupan, B A, Hammen, C, Jaenicke, C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-02-1987
• Subjects: Adolescent; Child; Cognition; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Emotions; Female; Humans; Male; Memory; Mental Recall; Self Concept
• DOI: 10.1016/0022-0965(87)90056-7
• ISSN: 0022-0965

Previous research has indicated that children display facilitated recall of personal adjectives judged to be self-descriptive; and most critically, positive and negative adjectives are differentially recalled by relatively depressed and nondepressed children. Such evidence of apparent self-schemas was explored in additional samples of children with current or past histories of diagnosable depression. As predicted, clinically depressed children showed even stronger recall of negative self-descriptive adjectives than in previous research. However, extent of previous experience with depression did not predict degree of negativity of current self-schema beyond that predicted by current mood. The results are discussed in terms of recent findings with depressed adults and are seen as compatible with a developmental model of self-schemas in which prior experience may affect accessibility of negative cognitions once the self-schema has been activated.