15Las acciones constitutivas «complejas» en los procesos laborales

Although clinically Beck’s theory of depression underpins most approaches to the assessment and treatment of depression, much of the recent research on

cognitive factors that underlies depression has focused on the cognitive-vulnerability model of depression. The cognitive vulnerability model of depression suggests that an individual is more likely to develop and sustain depression if the individual’s thinking style is characterised by a tendency to attribute stressful events to stable and global causes, to believe that the event will lead to future negative events, and to interpret the event as implying that something is ‘wrong’ with the person

(Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978). In short, a negative cognitive style is thought to interact with stress to increase risk for depression.

Research has shown that negative life events prospectively predict a more depressogenic attributional style in children (Garber & Flynn, 2001; Nolen-

Hoeksema, Girgus, & Seligman, 1992). For example, a positive correlation has been established between negative life events and depressogenic cognitive styles when negative events are classified as chronic stressors (e.g., recurring abuse; Steel, Sanna, Hammond, Whipple, & Cross, 2004). Bullying is one type of negative life

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event that can be a chronic stressful life event and is commonly associated with depression. Indeed researchers have stated that peer victimization was a “previously underestimated risk factor for cognitive vulnerability” (Mezulis et al.,, p. 1019). As discussed previously, theory and research support a relationship between

depression and self-debasing cognitions. However, only a few studies have investigated this relationship in the context of bullying, and the findings from these studies are summarised below.

In a longitudinal study conducted by Mezulis et al. (2006), 289 11-year old children were followed from birth to investigate the origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression. The results showed that out of three domains of negative life events, peer victimisation was the only predictor of more negative cognitive styles, as well as greater cognitive vulnerability to depression when child temperament and maternal anger expression were included as moderators.

Using an older sample of college students, Gibb, Alloy, Abramson, and Marx (2003) and Gibb, Abramson, and Alloy (2004), found that students who

retrospectively reported greater peer victimization in childhood or adolescence (in the former study, prior to age 18, and in the latter study, prior to age 15) had a more negative cognitive style characterised by internal, stable, global attributions and a tendency to infer negative consequences and negative characteristics about oneself following the occurrence of negative life events. This was found to be independent of parent-related variables such as parental inferential style, dysfunctional attitudes, histories of major depressive disorder, and emotional maltreatment by parents.

The results of Mezulis et al. (2006), in conjunction with those of Gibb et al. (2003) and Gibb et al. (2004), strongly suggest that the relationship between peer victimization and depression may be mediated by cognitive vulnerability. Indeed, in a

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later study, Gibb and Alloy (2006) found that cognitive vulnerability to depression moderated the relation between self-reported levels of verbal victimisation and residual change in children’s depressive symptoms. Again, this relationship was maintained even after controlling for parent-related variables. This is consistent with studies that have found that “characterological” self-blame mediates the relationship between self-perceived victimisation and adjustment problems such as loneliness, social anxiety, and low-self-worth. That is, victims with self-blaming tendencies were particularly vulnerable to adjustment problems (Graham, Bellmore, & Mize, 2006; Graham & Juvonen, 1998).

Furthermore, Gibb, Alloy, Walsahw, Comer, Shen, and Villari (2006) found that elevated levels of depression and hopelessness predicted increasing negativity in children’s attributional styles over a six-month period. In addition, the frequency of verbal victimization and levels of depression, both at the initial assessment and during the six-month follow-up were independently predictive of negative changes in children’s attributional styles.

Similarly, Prinstein, Cheah, and Guyer (2005) conducted a study to examine a moderator hypothesis based on the prediction that the combined effects of a critical self-referent attributional style and victimization would predict internalizing symptoms in 116 kindergarteners and 159 adolescents using a hypothetical vignette procedure. In both samples, this hypothesis was supported, with critical self-referent attributions and victimization concurrently and longitudinally correlated with depressive

symptoms, which support a cognitive vulnerability–stress model, suggesting that a propensity to draw critical self-referent attributions from ambiguous peer situations is associated with depressive symptoms, especially when high levels of peer

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depressive cognitions in aggressors. In this study, it was found that although a depressogenic attributional style was implicated in the associations of both oppositionality and delinquency with depressed mood, it was not statistically significant. This suggests that depressogenic attributional style has little effect on levels of depression in aggressors. However, Rowe et al. found that negative life events as measured by the Life Events Scale for Adolescents (Coddington, 1984), mediated the link between oppositionality and delinquency with depressed mood, which may suggest that negative life events, not depressogenic attributional style, increase the risk of both delinquency and depressed mood for some children.

In light of the above findings, negative self-debasing cognitive distortions appear to play an important role in the manifestation of psychosocial functioning, especially internalizing behaviours among victims. As will be discussed, various internalizing problems, such as depression and anxiety, are common correlates of all individuals involved in the bully/victimisation cycle, but particularly among victims.

The mechanisms by which victims of bullying begin to form negative views of the self, which consequently precipitate internal distress (e.g., depression,

loneliness, low self-esteem) are speculative. However, drawing upon research from the emotional abuse literature, researchers Rose and Abramson (1992)

hypothesised that the relationship between negative events and a generalized negative inferential style develops through the increasing negative inferences made about events. For instance, although a child may initially draw inferences that the negative event was temporary (e.g., ‘‘He was just in a bad mood today’’), with repeated victimisation, such inferences become unsubstantiated and instead the child may gradually make negative inferences that internalize the event (e.g., ‘‘I’m bad and I deserve it’’). It is thought that these negative inferences gradually

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generalise to other negative events in the child’s life, which may lead to the

development of a relatively stable negative inferential style, which is characteristic of individuals with depression. A similar process was proposed by Crick and Dodge (1994), who suggested that increasing use of interpretation biases is likely to gradually lead to biases being automatically and rigidly applied to new, originally unrelated situations.

As previously indicated, few studies have examined the role of self-debasing cognitive distortions in the context of bullying and victimization as they relate to psychosocial functioning, especially in adolescent samples. Examining the role that cognitive distortions play in the relationship between bullying/victimization and

psychosocial functioning may further our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that sustain involvement in the bully/victim cycle and that perpetuate impairments in psychosocial functioning.