Table 2.
Correlations between pronouns use, depression, anxiety, and rumination in the different subsamples.
| Symptoms of depression | Symptoms of anxiety | Brooding-rumination | Reflection-rumination | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun use during negative memory recall | r = 0.461, p = 0.020 (AN) | r = 0.545, p = 0.005 (AN) | Not assessed | Not assessed |
| r = 0.577, p = 0.013 (ND) | r = 0.787, p < 0.001 (ND)∗ | r = 0.469, p = 0.010 (ND) | r = 0.108, p = 0.578 (ND) | |
| r = -0.032, p = 0.809 (MDD)∗ | r = 0.001, p = 0.993 (MDD) | r = 0.177, p = 0.184 (MDD)∗ | r = 0.093, p = 0.486 (MDD)∗ | |
| Pronoun use during positive memory recall | r = 0.025, p = 0.919 (AN)∗∗ | r = 0.087, p = 0.725 (AN)∗∗ | Not assessed | Not assessed |
| r = 0.235, p = 0.220 (ND) | r = 0.326, p = 0.091 (ND)∗ | r = 0.053, p = 0.787 (ND) | r = 0.128, p = 0.508 (ND) | |
| r = 0.183, p = 0.168 (MDD)∗ | r = 0.004, p = 0.979 (MDD) | r = 0.093, p = 0.488 (MDD)∗ | r = -0.046, p = 0.734 (MDD)∗ |
Pronoun use = relative frequency of first-person singular pronouns in percent; Symptoms of depression were assessed with the Depression Module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in patients with anorexia nervosa and with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) in the other subsamples; Symptoms of anxiety were assessed using the General Anxiety Disorder Screener (GAD-7); Brooding and Reflection were assessed using the Ruminative Response Scale of the Responses Style Questionnaire (RSQ); AN = Patients with anorexia nervosa (n = 25); ND = Healthy, never-depressed participants (n = 29); MDD = Patients with major depressive disorder (n = 59); ∗data were missing from 1 participant; ∗∗positive memory recall data were only available from 19 patients with anorexia nervosa.