Negative Attributional Style and Depression in Black and White Children

Research consistently supports higher levels of depression in Black relative to White adults and adolescents. Although research supports the presence of depression and depression-related cognitions during early childhood, race disparities in depression in young children has received very little attention. The experience of race-related stressors, such as discrimination, has been shown to contribute to depression-related cognitions, such as negative attributional styles, in adults and adolescents. These cognitive risk processes may begin emerging much earlier in development. This project will take a step toward understanding if disparities in depression and depression-cognitions are already present in early childhood. The first hypothesis is that Black children have higher levels of depression than White children during early childhood. The second hypothesis is that there is a stronger association between negative attributional style and depression in Black children and White children. Seventy-two children (50% girls) aged 4 to 8 years (M = 5.50 years, SD = .70) participated in this study. Children were given the Children’s Attributional Style Interview (CASI) which was scored using the full negative subscale for interpersonal events for each type of style – internal, stable, and global. The children were also given the CDI to measure their depressive symptoms. An independent-samples t-test was conducted with age and sex as statistical controls. We found that Black children did have higher levels of depression than their White counterparts, t(73) = -2.42, p = .018. A regression with age and sex as statistical controls was used to examine how race moderated the association. This test revealed that race significantly moderates (B= 1.07, p=.006) the association between depression and negative attributional style is stronger for Black children (B= 1.07, p=.006) compared to White children (B= .156, p=.192). These findings suggest there is a significant association between negative attributional style and depression, and that this association is greater or stronger for Black than White children. This may be due to environmental factors like stress in their social networks at school or at home. Black children may experience more negative life events which may increase their negative attributions and depressive symptoms.