Self-Criticism, Neediness, and Distress Among Women Undergoing Treatment for Breast Cancer: A Preliminary Test of the Moderating Role of Adjustment to Illness

A diagnosis of cancer can be extremely stressful, and for that reason, cancer patients’ adjustment has been widely studied. Little is known, however, about how patients’ personality vulnerabilities affect their adjustment to cancer. The present study examined the moderating role of several psychological strategies of adjustment to cancer in the associations between the personality predispositions of self-criticism and neediness and distress among women diagnosed with breast cancer. Portuguese women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time (n _ 50) completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale questionnaires. Both self-criticism and neediness were found to be associated with increased levels of distress, with a stronger association observed for neediness. Hierarchical regressions indicated that more adaptive adjustment to cancer (i.e., low levels of helplessness/hopelessness, low levels of anxious preoccupation, high levels of fatalism, and high levels of fighting spirit) moderates the association between neediness and distress. There was no evidence that any of the adjustment variables had any mediating effect on the relationship between the personality variables (self-criticism and neediness) and distress. Results are discussed in the context of personality vulnerability and maladaptive psychological response to the disease as a stressful life event. Implications for treatment are discussed. Though promising, the results are preliminary and more research on larger samples is warranted

Parent-child interaction in the etiology of dependent and self-critical depression

The role of caring parent-child relationships in the development of depression has been investigated in three types of research strategies: (a) the study of secure and insecure attachment patterns in infants and young children; (b) the study of depressed mother-child interactions based on the assumption that the caring patterns in these families of children at risk for depression could contribute to the understanding of the etiology of depression; and (c) the study of normal and depressed adults' retrospective accounts of early caring experiences with their parents. A major conclusion from all three research methodologies is that mental representations or internal working models of attachment of care-giving relationships are central constructs in understanding the development of a vulnerability to depression. Secure and disturbed patterns of caring relationships are internalized by the child as mental representations; impaired mental representations based on disturbed relationships can create a vulnerability to later depression. There are suggestions that an anxious or ambivalent insecure attachment may lead to a depression focused on issues of dependency, loss, and abandonment, whereas an avoidant insecure attachment may result in a depression focused on issues of self-worth and self-criticism, with angry feelings directed toward both the caregiver and toward the self. Indications of possible critical periods in the development of vulnerability to depression are also considered.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30271/1/0000672.pd

Self-criticism, dependency, and adolescents’ externalising and internalising problems

Objectives: The present study examines the role of dependency (interpersonal relatedness) and self-criticism (self-definition) in internalising and externalising problems. Methods: Three hundred forty-six suburban Portuguese high-school students age 14–18 (mean = 16.14, standard deviation = 1.19) responded to the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire and the Youth Self-Report. The impact of depression, measured by the Children’s Depression Inventory, on the relationship of dependency and self-criticism on internalising and externalising problem behaviours was examined. Results: Both self-criticism and dependency, controlled for level of depression, were associated with internalising behaviour problems in both girls and boys. Gender differences, however, were observed in externalising problems. Externalising problems in boys were also associated with self-criticism. But externalising problems in girls were not associated with psychological variables and thus may be more a function of environmental rather than psychological factors. Conclusions: Implications of these findings for intervention are discussed

Neediness and depression in women

In a 6-month longitudinal design, the authors examined the links between neediness and increases in depressive symptoms in women. Neediness was assessed with the self-report Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ), supplemented by a projective measure that assessed an important component of dependency, oral dependency, on the Rorschach. Results indicate that neediness correlated significantly with increases in depressive symptoms over the 6 months. Orality interacted with neediness to substantially increase the prediction of increases in depressive symptoms