Depressive Symptoms and Cognitions of Foreseeability and Inevitability of Personal Events During the Covid‐19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Cognitions, such as foreseeability (“I didn't see it coming”) and inevitability (“It was bound to happen”) can regulate emotions regarding personal events. In previous research, hypothetical negative past events (i.e., with known outcomes) were rated as more foreseeable and more inevitable with higher levels of depressive symptoms. To investigate whether these findings extend to real‐life autobiographical events and to imagined future personal events, we conducted an online survey during the initial wave of the Covid‐19 pandemic. We assessed depressive symptoms and foreseeability and inevitability cognitions for pandemic‐related events that participants had experienced (i.e., past events) and personal events that participants expected to experience (i.e., future events). For future events, depressive symptoms were associated with both affect‐regulatory cognitions in alignment with theories of depression. For past events, there were no associations with depressive symptoms.