Negative Interpretation Biases and Early Depression (1 CE)

Number of Credits: 1

This course is for: Clinical Psychologists, Counselors, and Marriage & Family Therapists

Course By: Ken Springer, PhD

Content By: Sfärlea, A., Buhl, C., Loechner, J., Neumüller, J., Thomsen, K. S., Salemink, E., Schulte-Körne, G., & Platt, B. (2020). "I am a total...loser" – The role of interpretation biases in youth depression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, (48): 1337-1350.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-020-00670-3

Course Description: Negative interpretation biases have been linked to depression among adults, but few studies have explored this association in childhood. The present study compared the extent of interpretation biases among three groups of participants aged 9–14: Children diagnosed with major depression, non-depressed children with a high familial risk for depression, and non-depressed children with a low familial risk for depression. All participants completed a task in which ambiguous situations could be interpreted as positive or negative, as well as a task in which scrambled sentences could be formed to create positive or negative meanings. The authors found that on both tasks, depressed children showed more negative interpretation biases than the other two groups did. Among non-depressed children, those at high risk for developing depression showed more negative interpretation biases on the scrambled sentence task only. The results have implications for cognitive interventions intended to prevent and treat youth depression. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the theoretical framework in which negative interpretation biases are expected to be associated with depression among children
2. Describe the methods and main findings of the study concerning negative interpretation biases among children who do versus do not have depression
3. Integrate the strengths and limitations of the study, and summarize the clinical implications for interventions intended to prevent and treat early depression

Course Outline:

• Read and understand "I am a total...loser" – The role of interpretation biases in youth depression
• Review the Course Description and Learning Objectives
• Describe the theoretical framework linking negative interpretation biases to early depression
• Distinguish among the three groups sampled in the study and describe the approach to data collection
• Analyze the key differences between groups in performance on interpretation bias tasks
• Integrate the study's key findings, strengths, limitations, and clinical implications
• Work through the post-test questions, using the article as the sole basis for your answers
• Revisit the article for any missed questions and/or to better understand the association between negative interpretation biases and early depression

Approvals: