Positive emotionality at age 3 predicts cognitive styles in 7-year-old children

This study examined associations between temperament at age 3 and depressotypic cognitive styles at age 7 in a community sample of children. Sixty-four preschool aged children were assessed for positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) using a standardized battery of laboratory tasks and naturalistic home observations. At follow-up 4 years later, the children completed laboratory tasks designed to tap helplessness in social and problem-solving situations, positive and negative information-processing biases, and self-reports of attributional style. Lower PE at age 3 predicted greater helplessness in the interpersonal task and decreased positive schematic processing. There was little evidence for a relationship between NE and depressotypic cognitive styles. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that some portion of cognitive vulnerability to depression may stem from early-emerging differences in the expression of positive emotions.