Distinguishing the roles of rumination, worry, and executive function in predicting anxious arousal and dimensions of anhedonic depression

Tengshe, Chinmayi Shrikrishna

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129742 Copy

Description

Title

Distinguishing the roles of rumination, worry, and executive function in predicting anxious arousal and dimensions of anhedonic depression

Author(s)

Tengshe, Chinmayi Shrikrishna

Issue Date

2025-04-28

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Heller, Wendy

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Heller, Wendy

Committee Member(s)

• Berenbaum, Howard
• Hankin, Benjamin
• Cohen, Joseph
• Dolcos, Sanda

Department of Study

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Rumination, Worry, RNT, Executive Function, Bi-factor Model, Anxious Arousal, Loss of Interest, Low Positive Affect

Abstract

Rumination and worry, two forms of repetitive negative thought (RNT) both predict anxiety and depression, and recent work has led to conceptualizing the two constructs in terms of common and unique features of RNT. The broad construct of executive function (EF) is also associated with anxiety and depression, and research suggests that EF may interact with rumination and worry to influence the trajectory of these internalizing forms of psychopathology. However, lack of agreement on EF organization has led to inconsistent findings. Recent work has fractionated EF components of inhibition, shifting, and updating of working memory into common and unique factors of EF. Research has yet to explore whether these common and unique aspects of EF interact differentially with the common and unique aspects of RNT to predict anxiety and depression. Further, many studies have operationalized anxiety and depression as unitary constructs despite evidence that anxious arousal is a distinct dimension within anxiety and loss of interest and (low) positive affect are two distinct anhedonic depression dimensions. It is likely that common and unique aspects of RNT and EF foster risk through different pathways for anxious arousal and the two dimensions of anhedonic depression. A cross-sectional study was undertaken to explore this question. Utilizing self-report data from a large unselected sample of undergraduate college students, this study applied a latent variable approach to obtain the factors of RNT and EF and examine their interactive effect on anxious arousal, loss of interest, and (low) positive affect. Consistent with previous studies, a bi-factor model with a general RNT factor and rumination-specific and worry-specific factors fit well to the rumination-worry data, although the rumination-specific factor had low construct replicability and reliability. Similarly, a bi-factor model with a general EF factor (that captured all variance from inhibition in addition to common variance) and shifting-specific and updating-specific factors fit well to the EF data, although the specific EF factors had low construct replicability and reliability. Hierarchical linear regression analyses conducted to examine associations among the factors showed that general RNT predicted the two anhedonic depression dimensions but not anxious arousal. The worry-specific factor predicted only anxious arousal, whereas the rumination-specific factor did not predict any of the outcome measures. Moreover, none of the three EF factors moderated the associations of the rumination-worry factors with anxious arousal and the two anhedonic depression dimensions. These findings indicate that common and unique features of RNT as examined in this work using self-report measures confer differential risk for anxious arousal and anhedonic depression. However, the common and specific features as captured by EF factors in this study appear not to contribute to that risk. These findings have important implications for defining and operationalizing risk factors associated with internalizing psychopathology.

Graduation Semester

2025-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129742

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2025 Chinmayi Tengshe

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