A prospective and retrospective study of attributional style, perceptions of control, social support, and the life events-illness relationship

Abstract

All Rights ReservedA prospective and retrospective study of attributional style, perceptions of control, social support, and the life events-illness relationship

The Relationship Between the Perception of Major Life Events and Depression in Adulthood: A Systematic Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Furthermore, individuals with a depressive disorder rated negative events as more globally caused than individuals without (e.g., Areias et al, 1996;Persons & Rao, 1985). Similar to internality and stability, results on whether perceived globality is associated with depressive symptoms longitudinally or predicts changes in depressive symptoms over time were mixed (significant effects: e.g., Martin, 1986; no significant effects: e.g., Alvarado, 1988).…”

“…Cross-sectionally, higher internality ratings for negative, hypothetical events were consistently associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms (e.g., Ball et al, 2008;Martin, 1986), and individuals with a depressive disorder rated negative hypothetical events as more internally caused than individuals without (e.g., Mansfield & Wade, 2000;Power, 1987). These associations also remained when other variables such as education or anxiety were included as covariates (e.g., Martin, 1986;O'Sullivan et al, 2017;Persons & Rao, 1985). Although there were some exceptions (e.g., C. J.…”

“…The pattern of results for stability is similar to the one for internality. Cross-sectionally, perceived stability of hypothetical events was positively associated with depression across different analytical methods such as bivariate correlations (e.g., Ball et al, 2008;Kleiman et al, 2014;Persons & Rao, 1985), group comparisons (e.g., Areias et al, 1996;Mansfield & Wade, 2000), and multiple linear regressions (Martin, 1986; C. J. Robins & Block, 1989).…”

“…Some studies found longitudinal correlations (e.g., Martin, 1986;Pössel & Thomas, 2011) whereas others did not (e.g., Alvarado, 1988;Manly et al, 1982). Furthermore, only few studies examined whether perceived stability predicts changes in depressive symptoms, and these studies mostly indicated that neither stability nor its interaction with the number of experienced events predicts such changes (e.g., Alvarado, 1988).…”

The relationship between the perception of major life events and depression: A systematic scoping review and meta-analysis

“…Thus, an overview of the empirical research is needed to address the question whether there are relevant perceived event characteristics that are not covered in contemporary depression theories. Second, existing studies employed a variety of different study designs and assessment methods to examine the relationship between the perception of major life events and depression (e.g., Bartelstone & Trull, 1995;Brewin & Furnham, 1986;Martin, 1986;Rubin et al, 2009). Consequently, an overview of these different research designs is needed to highlight gaps in our present knowledge and directions for future research.…”