Symptom specificity and the prospective generation of life events in adolescence.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to uncover patterns in the generation of life events from symptom profiles and specific depression symptoms in an effort to obtain a fine-grained understanding of the stress-generation phenomenon. A community sample of 161 adolescents completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (A. T. Beck, 1996) at Time 1, and then 88 returned 1 year later for an assessment of life events using a rigorous contextual interview and rating system. Consistent with hypotheses, and controlling for baseline stress, cognitive-affective symptoms of depression prospectively predicted higher levels of dependent interpersonal life events. In contrast, somatic symptoms prospectively predicted higher levels of independent life events. Further examination of the types of events generated by specific symptoms suggests that different mechanisms may drive specific patterns of symptom-event generation and suggests that broadening the definition of independence may be necessary to capture the full context of event generation.