Psychological processes leading to activation or avoidance: Protective and vulnerability factors to depression

Kinderman (2005, 2013) elaborated a psychological model of mental ill-health according to which biological, social and circumstantial factors lead to mental disorders through their conjoint effects on psychological processes (PP). Our research adopted the same framework. It focused on PP which characterize depression. More precisely, since inactivity (also conceptualized as behavioural avoidance) is one of the main feature of depression, the present research focused on PP which influence the behavioural avoidance (vulnerability factor to depression) and the behavioural activation (protective factor for depression).

Three main aims were pursued:
To investigate the influence of the biased PP on the behavioural avoidance.
To find the PP which have a positive influence on the behavioural activation.
To present an integration of our results with Kinderman’s model.

Four hundred seventy-seven community adults (358 women, 119 men; x ̅ age = 34.25, SD = 11.85) completed an online survey assessing PP (negative repetitive thoughts, emotion regulation strategies, environmental rewards, self-image, inhibition/approach), avoidance, activation and depression. Since several questionnaires were used to assess each PP, factorial scores were computed for each one.

Overall, confirmatory factor analyses highlighted that avoidance is positively linked to ruminations, negative emotion regulation strategies and poor environmental rewards and that activation is positively linked to positive self-image and high environmental satisfaction. Results will also be discussed according to the sex.

According to their influence on both avoidance and activation, the environmental reward and the emotion regulation strategies appear to be important variables to work on during the treatment of depression.