Co-Rumination May Mitigate Depressive and Anxious Symptoms for Those High in Social Interaction Anxiety

Abstract

Introduction: Early co-rumination research has demonstrated that engagement in co-rumination, or persistent discussion of one's problems at length, can lead to increased depressive and anxious symptoms. There is limited research examining the direct relationship between a specialized type of anxiety—social interaction anxiety—and co-rumination, and that research has conflicting results, making it unclear what the relationship between the two is. The purpose of the present study was to further examine the relationship between co-rumination and social interaction anxiety, depressive symptoms, and symptoms of anxiety. Method: Ninety-six college women and men completed online questionnaires twice, separated by one month. Results: We found that co-rumination at Time 1 negatively predicted social interaction anxiety at Time 2. We also found co-rumination predicted reduced depressive symptoms, but only among those who had moderate and high levels of social interaction anxiety. In that respect, our findings replicate van Zalk and Tillfors (2017), who found that co-rumination acts as a buffer against depressive symptoms for individuals high in social anxiety. Our study also offers an extension of van Zalk and Tillfors in that the same pattern was found for anxious symptoms, but only among those with the highest levels of social interaction anxiety. Discussion: Therefore, co-rumination for highly socially-anxious individuals may serve as a form of positive social support, which highlights important individual differences on internalizing symptoms.