Is depression contagious?‘Cognitive vulnerability’ may be transferable between roommates, study finds

Cognitive vulnerability’ may be transferable between roommates

Being around someone who is depressed or exhibiting negative behaviour may be "contagious," as cognitive vulnerability and bad moods appear to be transferable between those living in close proximity to each other, new research suggests.

College roommates often share clothes, food and sometimes even the common cold or flu virus. But a new study from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana says depressive behaviour among roommates may also be contagious, often manifesting itself in as short a time as three months. Psychological scientists Gerald Haeffel and Jennifer Hames say that a person’s negative thoughts about life stresses can actually “rub off” on roommates, and raising risk factors for depression in those people within six months. Researchers say people who view personal hardships or tragedies as something that is out of their control and a reflection of their own failings are more vulnerable to depression. According to the study, published this month by the Association for Psychological Science in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, early adolescence is one of the most trying times in life and scientists say this is also when most people learn how to cope with individual stressors. As we move into adulthood, our cognitive ability to deal with difficult situations are strengthened. But, Haeffel and Hames say that we can often lose control of our ability to cope after suffering a life-altering situation and during such trying times, we are also more vulnerable to the negative feelings reflected in others we are close to, such as a roommate. Due to this, they hypothesize that “cognitive vulnerability might be ‘contagious’ during major life transitions, when our social environments are in flux.”
 To test this theory, they paired 103 randomly selected college freshman as roommates and monitored their moods and behaviours through an online questionnaire designed to measure their cognitive vulnerability, stressful life events and depressive symptoms, every three months during the study. In the first three months, they proved their “contagion effect” theory as those who were paired with a roommate with high vulnerable cognitive behaviour began to exhibit similar thinking patterns as their partners and developed higher levels of cognitive vulnerability. By six months, their level of vulnerability had doubled, proving them to be more at risk for depression. However, those paired with a partner with low cognitive vulnerability experienced decreases in their own sour moods and negative thinking. “Our study demonstrates that cognitive vulnerability has the potential to wax and wane over time depending on the social context,” Haeffel and Hames said. “This means that cognitive vulnerability should be thought of as plastic rather than immutable.”

Source Link: www.life.nationalpost.com