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Social news is marked by hyperconnectivity, in which emotions and thoughts are written and sent by WhatsApp through threads of infinite messages. This enhances a state that, in psychology, is called mental rumination, which is a process in which there is a chain of excessive, negative and repetitive thoughts about current concerns, problems, past experiences or doubts about the future. It is done passively by the patient and is experienced as impossible to control, having serious consequences, such as Loss of direct contact with your life, mental and physical exhaustion, anxiety or depressive feelings

If that mental rumination is accompanied by a Digital Corumiation, in which we reproduce our problems and thoughts in loop in conversations in instant messaging applications, such as WhatsApp, the risk of developing symptoms of depression increases exponential. This conclusion has arrived by a study by a researcher at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Dolores Fernández, and published in the magazine Personality and Individual Differences, which has explored the interaction between rumination as a personality feature (the tendency to think repetitively about negative situations), face -to -face corumiation (conversations between friends focused on negative feelings without resolution) and its digital version through instant messaging applications. The work was carried out with a sample of 329 people between 18 and 35 years old, 71% women.

The Rumiation, as the researcher explains, is considered an maladaptive strategy of emotional regulation, which contemplates two main forms: concrete rumination, more focused on the present and oriented to action, and the abstract rumination, focused on the past or future in a general and pessimist way. The latter is more strongly associated with depressive symptoms.

On the other hand, corumiation implies repeatedly share negative emotions with another person, “What, although it can strengthen affective links, also reinforces negative thought patterns and increases the risk of depression and anxiety, “he says. phenomenon, common in adolescence and youth, It has also moved to digital environments, where conversations extend and amplify.

The study results showed that Women obtained higher scores, compared to menin the use of WhatsApp, Corumiation (face -to -face and digital) and depressive symptoms, although They did not present a higher level of rumination. It was also observed that younger participants They tended to coruminate more through instant messaging, while the feature rumination increased with age.

Statistical analyzes revealed that abstract rumination directly influences depressive symptomatology, and also indirectly through face -to -face corumiation. “This, in turn, enhances digital corumiation, especially among those who spend more time to the use of applications such as WhatsApp.” In addition, a Moderator effect of the genre: in women, the time of use of instant messaging was more closely related to digital corumiation, As reported by the UCLM in a press release.