Psychosocial correlates of depressive symptomatology in adult women.

Abstract

Brown and Harris (1978) and Radloff and Rae (1979) have suggested that depression may result from the interaction of precipitating and susceptibility factors. The present study investigated the relationship between depressive symptomatology and a set of demographic and psychosocial variables presumed to be depression-susceptibility factors. A sample of 499 adult women completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), a demographic assessment, and measures of four psychosocial variables: life control, perceived accomplishment, derived identity, and social support. Higher CES-D scores were associated with less perceived life control, less perceived accomplishment, higher derived identity, and lower social support. Consistent with previous findings, higher CES-D scores also correlated with lower education, lower or nonemployment, younger age, and lower family income. To assess the relative importance of demographic and psychosocial factors, a hierarchical multiple regression was conducted with demographic variables entered first, followed by the psychosocial variables and, last, by the interaction variables. The set of psychosocial variables accounted for an additional 28% of depression variance beyond the 11% accounted for by the demographic variables. Perceived life control was the strongest contributor to the final regression equation. Alternative interpretations of the results and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Gender Issues in Depression

“…Reviews of a substantial body of research have not found a consistent relationship between depression and the trait of expressivity (34). Less perceived life control was thought to be associated with increased depressive symptomatology in women in that, as women more often develop "learned helplessness," they are more likely to develop pessimistic explanatory styles (35). However, more recent studies that carefully controlled for a previous history of depression found that there was no significant association between these personality factors and depression (13).…”

Effects of marital and co-worker relationships on negative affect: Testing the central role of marriage

“…Work, however, is also an important institutionalized form of interpersonal contact of relevance to negative affect. Employment per se has been related to lower levels of negative affect and higher self-esteem among women (Kessler & McRae, 1982;Warr & Perry, 1982;Warren & McEachren, 1983). Conversely, negative work conditions are related to higher levels of negative affect among working women (Krause & Geyer-Pestello, 1985), and higher levels of occupational stress predicts later affective disorder in men (Bromet et al, 1988).…”

La tempête de verglas : une occasion d’étudier les effets du stress prénatal chez l’enfant et la mère

“…Par exemple, Warren et al (1983) ont expliqué jusqu'à 39 % de la variance dans les scores relatifs à la dépression de la façon suivante : les facteurs psychosociaux expliquaient 28 % de la variance tandis que 11 points de pourcentages additionnels étaient expliqués par des facteurs démographiques tels que l'éducation et l'âge. Les prédicteurs individuels les plus importants étaient le sens de contrôle sur sa vie (corrélation de -.52) et le soutien social (corrélation de -.29).…”