The cognitive strategies and emotion regulation in high cognitive risk to depression undergraduate students

Objective To screen out the individuals at high cognitive risk by using the weakest link theory, and explore the characters of the cognitive emotion regulation. Methods 600 undergraduate students were tested with cognitive style questionnaire, general social and academic hassles scale, center for epidemiologic studies depression scale, and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. Results There were significant differences between individuals of high and low cognitive risk in self-blame(13.32±2.12) vs (12.45±2.27), rumination, catastrophizing, blaming others, positive refocusing and positive reappraising. Catastrophizing, generality, rumination, positive reappraising, stress, self-blame, and self could predict 34.2% of depression. Conclusion There are differences between individuals of high and low cognitive risk in cognitive emotion regulation. Catastrophizing, generality, rumination, positive reappraising, stress, self-blame, and self are the main predictors of depression. Key words: Cognitive vulnerability; Cognitive style; Emotion regulation; Depression; Stress