Depressive Symptomatology, Attributional Style, Dysfunctional Attitude, and Social Competency in Adolescents with and Without Learning Disabilities

Differences in depressive symptomatology, attributional style, dysfunctional attitude, and social competency were investigated in 147 adolescents classified as learning disabled-unsuccessful (LD-US), learning disabled-successful (LD-S), nonspecial education-low grade point average (NSPED-Low), and nonspecial education-high grade point average (NSPED-High) students. These students completed the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS; Reynolds, 1987), the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson et al., 1982), the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ; Seligman et al., 1984), the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS; Weissman, 1979), and rated themselves and were rated by their teachers regarding social competency. Multivariate analysis showed significant differences among the groups on these measures. Students with LD reported higher depressive symptomatology, displayed a more “depressogenic” attributional style, a more dysfunctional attitude, and rated themselves and were rated by their teachers as less socially competent than NSPED students. When the subgroups of LD and NSPED students were compared, the LD-US group differed significantly from the two NSPED groups more frequently than did the LD-S group. Additional multivariate analysis revealed that students who reported the most depressive symptoms differed from students who reported the least depressive symptoms on all measures. Results suggest that adolescent subgroups differ in self-reported depressive symptomatology, and support attributional, cognitive, and social learning competency theories of depression for adolescents.