Rumination as a Mental Habit: A study of habitual characteristics of depressive rumination in a non-clinical sample

The aim of the study was to examine the habitual characteristics of rumination. Depressive rumination is repeated self-focused thoughts on one’s depressive symptoms and their implications, and is related to both onset and duration of depressive episodes. It has recently been proposed that rumination can be conceptualized as a mental habit, as it may have general characteristics of habitual behaviours, such as repetition, automaticity and being triggered by stable contexts. It was hypothesised that those who report more depressive symptoms have stronger rumination tendencies, and that greater habitual characteristics of negative thinking would be associated with stronger rumination tendencies. In total, 85 university students completed questionnaires of depression and anxiety symptoms, trait rumination tendency and habitual characteristics of negative thinking (BDI-II, BAI, HINT, RRS). They also completed a rumination induction task (mood measure and overgeneral thinking). The hypotheses were partially supported. Those who reported more depressive symptoms showed more rumination tendencies measured with questionnaires, and those who reported stronger tendency to habitual negative thinking were more prone to rumination measured with questionnaires. However, the rumination induction task did not affect participants’ mood, contrary to previous research. The results indicate that depressive rumination may be viewed as a form of a mental habit but this needs to be tested using experimental tasks in future studies