Emotional Maltreatment From Parents, Verbal Peer Victimization, and Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression1

Although a number of studies have examined possible developmental antecedents of cognitive vulnerability to depression, most have focused on parental variables. In contrast, the current studies examined the relation between reports by college students of peer victimization during childhood and cognitive vulnerability to depression, as defined by hopelessness (L. Y. Abramson, G. I. Metalsky, & L. B. Alloy, 1989) and Beck’s theories (A. T. Beck, 1967, 1987) of depression. Results from both studies supported the hypothesis that peer victimization contributes unique variance to the prediction of cognitive vulnerability beyond that accounted for by parent variables. The implications of these results for “third variable accounts” involving general parental factors (e.g., genetic transmission of cognitive vulnerability) of the relationship between peer victimization and cognitive vulnerability are discussed.