Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol. 27, No. 3, June 2003 ( C  2003), pp. 261–273 An Empirical Test of a Clinical Metacognitive Model of Rumination and Depression 1 Costas Papageorgiou 2,4,5 and Adrian Wells 3,4 Rumination has attracted increasing theoretical and empirical interest in the past 15 years. Previous research has demonstrated significant relationships between rumina- tion, depression, and metacognition. Two studies were conducted to further investigate these relationships and test the fit of a clinical metacognitive model of rumination and depression in samples of both depressed and nondepressed participants. In these studies, we collected cross-sectional data of rumination, depression, and metacogni- tion. The relationships among variables were examined by testing the fit of structural equation models. In the study on depressed participants, a good model fit was ob- tained consistent with predictions. There were similarities and differences between the depressed and nondepressed samples in terms of relationships among metacognition, rumination, and depression. In each case, theoretically consistent paths between posi- tive metacognitive beliefs, rumination, negative metacognitive beliefs, and depression were evident. The conceptual and clinical implications of these data are discussed. KEY WORDS: depression; rumination; metacognition; cognitive processes. Depressive rumination, crudely defined as recyclic negative thinking, is a key cognitive feature of dysphoria and major depressive disorder. A number of recent experimental, cross-sectional, and longitudinal studies have shown that depressive rumination is associated with several negative consequences. For instance, rumi- nation has been found to maintain and exacerbate depressed mood (Morrow & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990; Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991, 1993; Nolen-Hoeksema, Parker, & Larson, 1994) and predict elevated levels of depressive symptoms (Just & Alloy, 1997) as well as episodes of major depression (Kuehner & Weber, 1999). In addition, empirical evidence shows that rumination reduces willingness to engage 1 Parts of this paper were presented at the World Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, July 2001, Vancouver, Canada. 2 Division of Clinical Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. 3 Division of Clinical Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. 4 Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, United Kingdom. 5 Correspondence should be directed to Dr Costas Papageorgiou, Institute for Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YT, United Kingdom; e-mail: c.papageorgiou@lancaster.ac.uk. 261 0147-5916/03/0600-0261/0 C  2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation