Aim. The goals of the research were to investigate (a) the relationships among rumination, anxiety, and depression in a sample of Iranian students (b) the relationships between negative attentional bias with depression and rumination; and (c) the efficacy of Depression Attention Control Training Program (Depression-ACTP) on reducing negative attentional bias, rumination, and depression. Method. The research included three studies. In the first study, participants (N = 119; 37% male) completed Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). In the Second Study, participants (N = 52; 20% male) completed BDI-II, RRS, BAI and Depression-Stroop Test. In the third study, participants (N = 16; 100% female) from previous study who got the highest scores on both rumination and depression were randomly allocated to a training (experimental) or a control group. The experimental group received four sessions of training with the Depression-ACTP. All participants completed BDI-II, RRS and Depression Stroop Test at pre- post-training and a 70–day follow-up. Results. First study: the results of a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that, after controlling for age, gender, and anxiety, increases in rumination were associated with increases in depression. Second study: the results indicated that, (a) compared to non-depressed participants, depressed participants showed less attentional bias for positive- and concern-related stimuli; (b) negative attentional bias was positively related to depression, but the relationship was limited to depressed females; (c) positive- and concern-related attentional bias were negatively related to depression and rumination; and (d) increases in negative attentional bias were associated with increases in rumination, even after age, gender, education, classic Stroop test, anxiety, and depression had been controlled. Third study: the results indicated that participants in the Depression-ACTP group showed reductions at the post-training negative attentional bias and rumination (reductions in depression approached significance; p = .06). Conclusions. The findings support the role of attentional bias in rumination and depression and suggest the feasibility and benefits of depression attention control training in reducing rumination and depressive mood.

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