A perceived availability of social support measure (the ISEL) was designed with independent subscales measuring four separate support functions. In a sample of college students, both perceived availability of social support and number of positive events moderated the relationship between negative life stress and depressive and physical symptomatology. In the case of depressive symptoms, the data fit a “buffering” hypothesis pattern, i.e., they suggest that both social support and positive events protect one from the pathogenic effects of high levels of life stress but are relatively unimportant for those with low levels of stress. In the case of physical symptoms, the data only partially support the buffering hypothesis. Particularly, the data suggest that both social support and positive events protect one from the pathogenic effects of high levels of stress but harm those (i.e., are associated with increased symptomatology) with low levels of stress. Further analyses suggest that self‐esteem and appraisal support were primarily responsible for the reported interactions between negative life stress and social support. In contrast, frequency of past social support was not an effective life stress buffer in either the case of depressive or physical symptomatology. Moreover, past support frequency was positively related to physical symptoms and unrelated to depressive symptoms, while perceived availability of support was negatively related to depressive symptoms and unrelated to physical symptoms.

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The purpose of this study was to identify variables that are antecedents for unipolar depression. Information regarding a number of sociodemographic and psychosocial variables was collected on a community sample of adults (JV = 998), 562 of whom were interviewed and diagnosed according to Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Research Diagnostic Criteria procedures and received a second assessment on most of the variables. The average time elapsed between Time 1 and Time 2 was 8.3 months. Depressive symptomatology was also assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale CES-D. A number of variables emerged, which predicted both the development of an episode of depression and elevated CES-D scores. These include reporting an elevated level of depressive and other symptoms and having experienced an elevated level of stress. Variables that are predictive of developing an episode of depression include young age, being female, and having had a previous episode of depression. The presence of depressogenic cognitions was uniquely predictive of an elevation of depression symptoms as measured by the CES-D. Virtually no variables demonstrated a significant moderating effect on the stress-depression relation.Over the last 25 years, considerable progress has been achieved in the delineation of the psychological, psychosocial, and biogenetic characteristics associated with affective disorders. The results of this body of research have been summarized in increasingly voluminous reviews by Becker (1974Becker ( , 1977, Carson and Carson (1984), Mendels (1975), Whybrow, Akiskal, and McKinney (1984), and Winokur (1969. In particular, previous research has identified a number of variables associated with unipolar depression. Thus, depressed individuals have been shown to have difficulties in interpersonal interaction (e.g.,

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