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

Abstract

Major life events can lead to depression in adulthood. However, as predicted by several depression theories (e.g., Hopelessness Theory of Depression), not only the mere occurrence of major life events but also the way people perceive them determines the onset of a depression. In this systematic review, we narratively summarized 276 studies (total N = 89,600) investigating the relationship between the perception of major life events and depression. Cross-sectionally, several perceived event characteristics such as globality, valence, impact, distress, and loss were consistently associated with depression. Furthermore, some perceived event characteristics such as a negative attributional style and event centrality predicted the onset of depression or changes in depressive symptoms over time. However, longitudinal studies on the relationship between perceived event characteristics and depression were scarce. In general, our review supports the relevance of the perceived event characteristics proposed in Hopelessness Theory of Depression (e.g., stability, internality, globality, and their composite scores) and other depression theories. However, further longitudinal research considering a range of different perceived event characteristics, using non-Western heterogeneous samples, and different retest intervals are needed to better understand the association between the perception of major life events and depression.

Are changes in the perception of major life events associated with changes in subjective well-being?

“…Empirically, there is robust evidence that individual differences in the perception of major life events can explain the onset of depression (for a review, see Haehner et al, 2022).…”

Individual Differences in Changes in Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Event Characteristics After Negative Life Events

“…Several perceived event characteristics have only been assessed in studies that examined the effects of perceived event characteristics across events (i.e., the most important event in a certain time frame). However, in this table, we did not include studies that used perceived event characteristics to weight the number of experienced events when creating sum scores as these studies confound the number of experienced events with the effect of the perceived event characteristics (see Haehner, Würtz, et al, 2023 for a more detailed discussion). Furthermore, we did not include studies examining the association between perceived event characteristics and indicators of mental health.…”

“…Furthermore, we did not include studies examining the association between perceived event characteristics and indicators of mental health. For a review on the associations between perceived event characteristics and depression see Haehner, Würtz, et al, 2023. Note.…”

The Perception of Major Life Events Across the Life Course

“…To better understand individual differences in these effects, research interest recently turned to the question of how major life events are perceived (e.g., Haehner, Rakhshani, et al, 2023;Luhmann et al, 2021;Schwaba et al, 2023). However, to this date, research focused almost exclusively on young adulthood so that little is known regarding age differences in the perception of major life events (Haehner, Pfeifer, et al, 2023;Haehner et al, 2024). In the present study, we take a step towards closing this research gap by examining whether and how the perception of major life events varies across the life course using data from the nationally representative German Socioeconomic Panel Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS).…”

“…Thereby, the different theoretical accounts focus on the objective assessment of whether or not a major life event occurs at a certain age. However, recent research indicates that, to fully understand the effects of major life events, it is important to consider people's subjective perception of major life events, which may also vary across age (e.g., Haehner et al, 2024;Luhmann et al, 2021;Schwaba et al, 2023).…”