Types Of Stressful Life Events Research Articles

Stressful Life Events in Depressed Adolescents: The Role of Dependent Events during the Depressive Episode

To examine the relationship between stressful life events and major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescents. Adolescents (aged 12 to 18 years) with a current episode of MDD based on Research Diagnostic Criteria (n = 39) and normal controls free of any Axis I lifetime psychiatric disorder (n = 35) were assessed using the Life Events Record. MDD and normal control adolescents had similar rates of total stressful life events in the year before being interviewed. Stressful life events were dichotomized into those that were most likely either independent of or dependent on the adolescent's influence/behavior. Depressed adolescents had significantly more dependent stressful life events during the previous year than did the normal controls. Further analyses showed that depressed adolescents with dependent stressful life events scored lower on symptom clusters and accordingly were less severely depressed than depressed adolescents without dependent life events. The results of this study indicate that depressed adolescents have an increased risk for experiencing dependent life events. Furthermore, these data suggest that dependent life events in depressed adolescents are differentially associated with the type and severity of symptom presentation. The temporal occurrence, severity, and type of stressful life events as they relate to the onset, phenotypic expression, and maintenance of depression in adolescents need to be more fully understood.

Neighborhood disadvantage, stressful life events and adjustments in urban elementary-school children

Assessed the occurrence of three types of stressful life events among African- American and Hispanic children living in urban neighborhoods, and examined the concurrent and prospective relations between stressful life events and adjustment. Younger children and children living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods experienced more stressful life events. Stressful life events were significantly related to higher concurrent levels of aggression and predicted increases in aggression P year later. Life transitions and exposure to violence predicted concurrent aggression, but circumscribed events served as the strongest predictor of aggression 1 year later. Total number of stressful events and exposure to violence significantly interacted with neighborhood disadvantage, such that effects were only apparent under conditions of high neighborhood disadvantage.

Stressful life events: Moderators of the relationships of gender and gender roles to self-reported depression and suicidality among college students

The present study examined whether relationships of self-reported depression and suicidality to gender roles or gender are moderated by the type of stressful life events that individuals experience. The focus was on events in stereotypic male (achievement) versus female (interpersonal) domains. This study of 290 women and 247 men undergraduates employed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Personal Attributes Questionnaire and a measure of recent negative life events. In the presence of high achievement stress, high masculinity was related to low suicidality for men. In the presence of high interpersonal stress, high femininity was related to low self-reported depression for women. These findings were interpreted as consistent with the androgyny model of adjustment. However, independent of gender roles, high interpersonal stress was related to high self-reported depression more strongly among women than among men. Suicidality was related to interpersonal events for women and achievement events for men. These findings were interpreted as consistent with the self-schema model of depression.

Specificity of the Relation Between Life Events and Psychological Symptomatology

Examined the specificity of the relation between two types of stressful life events, separations and conflicts, and psychological symptomatology in children. It was hypothesized that separation events would have a specific effect on depressive symptomatology, whereas conflict events would have a specific effect on symptoms of conduct disorder. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 359 children, ages 8 through 16, consisting of children who had experienced parental death, parental divorce, or asthma, and a comparison group who had not experienced a major stressful event. Multivariate regression analyses indicated partial support for a specificity model of the effects of stress events. Strongest support for the specificity model of the effects of stressors came from the children who experienced parental death.

Interpersonal relatedness and self-definition: Two prototypes for depression

This paper reviews recent research that indicates the importance of differentiating subtypes of depression based on two types of experiences that lead individuals to become depressed: (a) disruptions of interpersonal relations and (b) threats to self-integrity and self-esteem. We review research with clinical and nonclinical samples that investigated the relationships of these distinctions to the quality of current interpersonal relationships and to differential sensitivity to various types of stressful life events, as well as to aspects of early life experiences, especially the quality of the parent-child relationship. We also evaluate research evidence that considers the role of these two dimensions in clinical depression. In addition to proposing an etiologic model about aspects of the onset and recurrence of depression based on the interaction between personality predispositions and types of stressful life events, we place these observations about depression in a broad theoretical context of contemporary personality theory which defines two primary dimensions of personality development and psychopathology.

Stressful life events and risk for depression in the family

AbstractIn a prospective epidemiologic study of risk for depression in a random sample of 43 families, we interviewed adults and children in their homes at baseline, six months later, and nine months after the second interview. At time‐1 and time‐3, a 28‐item stressful life events (SLE) inventory was given to each adult and child over the age of 11, and at time‐2, to the family as a whole. Risk for depression was evaluated by screening instruments and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. At time‐1, the mean number of SLE reported as occurring in the last six months was 4.43 ± 3.55. For the 34 families that were interviewed all three times, almost two more SLE per family (5.82 ± 3.70) were reported at time‐3 than at time‐1 (3.97 ± 2.59). Methodologic factors, as well as being in ‘risk’ status at some time during the study, were responsible for the greater number of events reported at time‐3 than at time‐1. There was surprisingly little agreement among family members about the number and type of SLE that had occurred. Children's reports of SLE added approximately 20 per cent to those reported by parents.

The role of stress in recurrent tension headache.

SYNOPSISThis study investigated the role of stress in recurrent tension headache. Although recurrent tension headache sufferers (N=117) and matched headache‐free controls (N=174) reported similar numbers and types of stressful life events, headache sufferers reported a greater number of chronic everyday stresses or daily hassles than did controls. Recurrent tension headache sufferers also appraised the stressful events they experienced more negatively than did controls, and employed less effective coping strategies in their efforts to manage stressful events. When the potential impact of a stressful event was ambiguous, recurrent headache sufferers appraised this event more negatively and themselves as having less control over the event than did headache‐free controls. In their coping efforts, recurrent tension headache sufferers also placed greater reliance on the relatively ineffective coping strategies of avoidance and self‐blame, and made less use of social support than did controls. These findings suggest that research on the role of stress in tensionheadaches should focus not on the occurrence of major stressful life events, but on the recurrent headache sufferer's cognitive appraisals of stressful events and efforts to cope with stress.