This study examined the generality of rumination and its associations with multiple indices of trait level affect and socio-emotional functioning using both variable-centered and person-centered approaches to data analysis. Participants were 310 college-age students (81% female) who completed self-report measures of sadness and anger rumination, trait sadness and anger, depressive symptoms, and aggressive behavior. Confirmatory factor analysis found that a two-factor model of rumination, comprised of separate but highly correlated sadness and anger rumination factors, best fit the data. Latent profile analysis concluded that a three-class solution characterized by high, average, and low rumination provided the optimal categorization of participants. The three classes differed on trait sadness, trait anger, depression, and aggression such that as rumination class moved from low to high, so did the severity of trait mood and socio-emotional variables. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that sadness rumination, but not anger rumination, was related to depression, while anger rumination, but not sadness rumination was related to aggression. This study replicated past research that demonstrated both anger rumination and trait anger are uniquely related to aggression and was the first to show that both sadness rumination and trait sadness were uniquely related to depression. Sex differences were found for one measure of sadness rumination, depression, trait sadness, and aggression, with women endorsing more sadness-related variables and men endorsing more aggression. Sex was considered as a covariate and was not shown to moderate any of the relationships between rumination and its correlates. Taken together, these analyses suggest rumination may be considered a general cognitive tendency that is comprised of highly related sub-factors of sadness and anger rumination. Implications for clinical intervention are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / April 18, 2016. / Aggression, Anger, Depression, Rumination, Sadness / Includes bibliographical references. / Janet A. Kistner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Dina J. Wilke, University Representative; Thomas E. Joiner, Jr., Committee Member; Jesse R. Cougle, Committee Member; Richard K. Wagner, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_552136 |
| Contributors | Stephens, Haley F. (authoraut), Kistner, Janet (professor directing dissertation), Wilke, Dina J. (university representative), Joiner, Thomas (committee member), Cougle, Jesse R. (Jesse Ray) (committee member), Wagner, Richard K. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Psychology (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (64 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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