Excessive reassurance seeking: Delineating a risk factor involved in the development of depressive symptoms

Sir studies investigated (a) the construct validity of reassurance seeking and (b) reassurance seeking as a specific vulnerability factor for depressi ve symptoms. Studies I and 2 demonstrated that reassurance seeking is a rea sonably cohesive, replicable, arid valid construct, discernible from. relat ed interpersonal variables. Study 3 demonstrated that reassurance seeking d isplayed 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, a nd showed that those who developed fixture depressive symptoms (as compared with those who remained symptom free) obtained elevated reassurance-seekin g scores at baseline, when all participants were symptom free, but did not obtain elevated scores on other interpersonal variables. Studies 5 and 6 in dicate that reassurance seeking predicts fixture depressive reactions to st ress. Taken together, the six studies support the construct validity of rea ssurance seeking, as well as its potential role as a specific vulnerability factor for depression.