Multiple Paths to Rumination: A Network Analytical Approach

Theories of rumination have proposed different psychological factors to place one at risk for repetitive negative thinking. An empirical test that captures the most relevant contributors to rumination within one integrative model is lacking. Building on influential self-regulatory and metacognitive frameworks, we modeled how key constructs in this context relate to ruminative thinking. 498 participants completed online questionnaires including indicators of rumination, metacognition, promotion goal orientation, effortful control, and depression. We estimated regularized partial correlation networks to investigate the general structure of the integrative model and followed these analyses up with directed acyclic graphs to identify potential causal pathways towards rumination. Results demonstrated that: (1) both self-regulatory and metacognitive factors were directly linked to rumination, amongst these were (2) positive beliefs, negative beliefs about uncontrollability, self-consciousness, depression, and effortful control, and (3) we identified multiple potentially causal pathways, suggesting three direct contributors to rumination while controlling for the influence of all other variables: diminished effortful control, positive beliefs, and self-consciousness. This study is the first to integrate metacognitive and self-regulatory frameworks of rumination in a data-driven manner. Our findings suggest that there are multiple pathways towards rumination, which should be incorporated in clinical case conceptualization of rumination and related disorders.