An experimental examination of learned helplessness in older adolescents and young adults with long-standing asthma

Objective: To examine the effects of experimentally induced learned helples sness in older adolescents and young adults with long-standing asthma. Methods: Thirty-nine participants (18-24 years of age) with histories of lo ng-standing asthma (AS) and an age-matched healthy cohort (HC) (N = 94) rec eived either contingent or noncontingent feedback on an experimental task. Participants' anagram-solving performance was assessed following the experi mental procedure. Participants also completed a measure of depression and p retest-posttest measures of mood, expectancy, and attributions related to e xperimental task performance. Results: The AS participants demonstrated significantly greater problem-sol ving deficits following response-noncontingent feedback, compared to the HC group. Further, whereas both AS and HC participants made more internal per formance attributions when given response-contingent feedback, only AS part icipants demonstrated a pattern of increased internal attributions (i.e., s elf-focus) following response-noncontingent failure. In addition, 21% of AS participants met DSM-IV criteria for major depression, compared to only 5% of the HC group. Conclusions: Individuals with long-standing asthma may be at increased risk for depression and for learned helplessness deficits, specifically impaire d problem solving, in response to environmental noncontingency. Results are discussed in terms of both learned helplessness theory and perseverative s elf-focus conceptualizations of depression. The implications for both short - and long-term management of pediatric asthma are also discussed.