Shame and guilt in preschool depression: evidence for elevations in self‐conscious emotions in depression as early as age 3

Findings demonstrated that high levels of shame and maladaptive guilt were related to preschool onset depression when using observational measures of children's internal representations of their self-conscious emotions as well as parent report. These findings demonstrate continuity of these core emotions of depression as early as age 3. These findings suggest that guilt and shame should be explored in clinical assessments of young children and may be an important focus for future studies of the developmental psychopathology of depression.