• DOI:10.1111/1467-9280.00369
• Corpus ID: 1978263

Excessive Reassurance Seeking: Delineating a Risk Factor Involved in the Development of Depressive Symptoms

@article{Joiner2001ExcessiveRS,
  title={Excessive Reassurance Seeking: Delineating a Risk Factor Involved in the Development of Depressive Symptoms},
  author={Thomas E. Joiner and Gerald I. Metalsky},
  journal={Psychological Science},
  year={2001},
  volume={12},
  pages={371 - 378}
}

• T. Joiner, G. Metalsky
• Published 1 September 2001
• Psychology, Medicine
• Psychological Science

Six studies investigated (a) the construct validity of reassurance seeking and (b) reassurance seeking as a specific vulnerability factor for depressive symptoms. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that reassurance seeking is a reasonably cohesive, replicable, and valid construct, discernible from related interpersonal variables. Study 3 demonstrated that reassurance seeking displayed diagnostic specificity to depression, whereas other interpersonal variables did not, in a sample of clinically diagnosed participants. Study 4 prospectively assessed a group of initially symptom-free participants, and showed that those who developed future depressive symptoms (as compared with those who remained symptom-free) obtained elevated reassurance-seeking scores at baseline, when all participants were symptom-free, but did not obtain elevated scores on other interpersonal variables. Studies 5 and 6 indicate that reassurance seeking predicts future depressive reactions to stress. Taken together, the six studies support the construct validity of reassurance seeking, as well as its potential role as a specific vulnerability factor for depression.