Poor social support mediates the longitudinal association between reduced autobiographical memory specificity and depressive symptoms a year later

Abstract

The extent to which we share our past with other people is likely to influence the support they give us; a person who talks about their past in non-specific terms may be unlikely to attract much social support. We present the first cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations into whether reduced autobiographical memory specificity can predict poor social support and whether this is associated with heightened depressive symptoms. We also examine whether these mediational effects differ as a function of who is giving social support (e.g., friends, family, romantic partners). We consider the implications of these findings for our understanding of rAMS and its relation with emotional disorder.