Abstract
Several studies investigated the role of resilience as a mediating factor for psychopathological phenotypes. The aim of the current study is to explore the putative role of resilience as a mediator between different vulnerability factors and depressive symptoms. One hundred and fifty patients with a major depressive disorder diagnosis have been evaluated on the basis of humiliation (Humiliation Inventory), adverse past family experiences (Risky Family Questionnaire), hopelessness (Beck Hopelessness Scale), and resilience (Resilience Scale for Adult) scores. A multiple regression analysis and a bootstrapping method were carried out to assess the hypothesis that resilience could mediate the relationships between these risk factors as predictors and hopelessness as a dependent variable. Our results show that resilience has a mediating role in the relationship between several risk factors that are specifically involved in interpersonal functioning and hopelessness. The main limitations of the study are the cross-sectional nature of the study, the use of self-report instruments, the lack of personality assessment, and the consideration of the resilience as a unique construct. The understanding of the mechanisms through which resilience mediates the effects of different interpersonal risk factors is crucial in the study of depression. In fact, future prevention-oriented studies can also be carried out considering the mediating role of resilience between interpersonal risk factors and depressive symptoms.
Highlights
Depression is one of the most disabling mental disorders, showing a heterogeneous clinical presentation [1] and it is related to different risk factors such as biological, psychological, and environmental [2]
In the first mediation model, humiliation was positively associated with hopelessness (B = 0.07, t [144] = 5.46, p = 0.001) and negatively related to resilience (B = −0.006, t [144] = −4.66, p = 0.001)
The mediation analysis confirmed that resilience mediated the relation between humiliation and hopelessness (B = 0.02; CI = 0.01 to 0.04)
Summary
Depression is one of the most disabling mental disorders, showing a heterogeneous clinical presentation [1] and it is related to different risk factors such as biological, psychological, and environmental [2]. Risk factors for depression include negative interpersonal experiences, such as enduring humiliation and early exposure to a dysfunctional familial environment. Farmer and McGuffin [5] studied the relationship between humiliation and depression showing that humiliating events may have a role in the onset of depression. Humiliating experiences, such as discrimination, social isolation, and rejection could trigger a depressive episode [6, 7]. The enduring fear of being humiliated is considered one of the pathogenic negative beliefs in depression [8]. Early humiliating experiences, such as bullying and peer victimization, are associated with hopelessness, depression, and suicidality [9]
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