Optimism, self-mastery, and symptoms of depression in women professionals

The construct validity and predictive utility of dispositional optimism were examined in a sample of 192 women professionals. By using covariance structure modeling with latent variables, opotimism (Scheier & Carver, 1985) and self-mastery (Pearlin & Schooler, 1978) were found to be empirically distinct, although substantially correlated, constructs. Furthermore, although optimism and self-mastery were significant and negatively correlated with symptoms of depression, only self-mastery was independently associated with symptom levels. In addition, no evidence was found that optimism and self-mastery interact to influence depressive symptoms. These results suggest that the apparent predictive power of optimism may derive from its substantial overlap with self-mastery. Implications for the assessment and interpretation of optimism and self-mastery are discussed.     

The role of social desirability, negative affectivity, and female reproductive system symptoms in differences in reporting symptoms by men and women

52 women and 38 men completed the Inventory of Health Status, Version 2, a measure of somatic health, and the Cornell Medical Index which provided separate scores for somatic and emotional health. The Personal Style Inventory was given, from which measures of Social Desirability and Negative Affectivity were utilized. Multiple regressions were done separately with scores on the Inventory of Health Status and the Cornell Emotional component, and scores on Social Desirability, Negative Affectivity, and sex as predictors. Scores on Social Desirability and Negative Affectivity were forced into the equation first. For the Inventory of Health Status, sex alone contributed significantly to the final equation. For scores on the Cornell Index's emotional component both sex and scores on negative affectivity had significant beta weights. Analysis of items from the Inventory of Health Status was done to examine the role of symptoms pertaining to women's reproductive system, and almost all the items that differed by sex were either clearly or possibly specific female reproductive items, e.g., "Abnormal menstruation." Similar analyses were not possible for the organic component of the Cornell Index, which has different items for reproductive systems of men and women. The complexity of the female reproductive system may play a central role in sex differences in symptom reporting and perhaps of emotional distress, but other interpretations are discussed.     

The impact of environmental experiences on symptoms of anxiety and depression across the life span

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are relatively stable over time. Can this stability be explained by genetic influences, or is it caused by the long-lasting effects of accumulating environmental experiences? To address this question, we analyzed longitudinally assessed symptoms of anxiety and depression in eight samples of monozygotic twins of widely varying ages. These samples were drawn from American and European population-based registries. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we examined individual differences and individual changes in the level of symptoms over time. This method enabled us to decompose the variance into the predictable variance shared by both members of each pair of twins, the differences between individuals within pairs, and the residual variance. We then modeled how these components of individual variation changed over time. Within pairs, the twins' predicted levels of symptoms increasingly diverged from childhood until late adulthood, at which point the divergence ceased. By middle adulthood, environmental experiences contributed substantially to stable and predictable interindividual differences in levels of anxiety and depression.     

Attributional style, depression, and perceptions of consensus for events

This study examined differences between depressed and nondepressed individuals' implicit perceptions of consensus, which may contribute to differences in their attributional styles. Subjects rated the extent to which positive, negative, and neutral events happen to themselves and to the average college student and completed measures of depth of depression and attributional style. Perceptions of consensus were highly correlated with all components of attributional style for negative and positive events. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that ratings of others explained variance in attributional style beyond that explained by ratings of the self for positive but not for negative events. Path analyses, however, indicated that the indirect path from perceptions of consensus to depression mediated through attributional style was nonsignificant for positive events, although it was significant for negative events. These findings are discussed in terms of the role of perceptions of others as precursors of attributional style and depression.     

Negative life events and symptoms of depression and anxiety: stress causation and/or stress generation

Background and Objectives: Stressful life events are known to contribute to development of depression; however, it is possible this link is bidirectional. The present study examined whether such stress generation effects are greater than the effects of stressful life events on depression, and whether stress generation is also evident with anxiety. Design: Participants were two large age cohorts (N = 732 aged 44 years; N = 705 aged 63 years) from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study. Methods: Stressful life events, depression, and anxiety symptoms were measured twice five years apart. Cross-lagged panel analysis examined the mutual influences of stressful life events on depression and on anxiety over time. Results: Life events predicted later depressive symptomatology (p = .01), but the depression predicting life events relationship was less strong (p = .06), whereas earlier anxiety predicted life events five years later (p = .001). There was evidence of sex differences in the extent to which life events predicted later anxiety. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of stress causation for depression and weaker evidence for stress generation. In contrast, there was strong evidence of stress generation for anxiety but weaker evidence for stress causation, and that differed for men and women.     

Neighborhood context, personality, and stressful life events as predictors of depression among African American women

The authors tested neighborhood context, negative life events, and negative affectivity as predictors of the onset of major depression among 720 African American women. Neighborhood-level economic disadvantage (e.g., percentage of residents below the poverty line) and social disorder (e.g., delinquency, drug use) predicted the onset of major depression when controlling for individual-level demographic characteristics. Neighborhood-level disadvantage/disorder interacted with negative life events, such that women who experienced recent negative life events and lived in high disadvantage/disorder neighborhoods were more likely to become depressed than were those who lived in more benign settings, both concurrently and over a 2-year period. Neighborhood disadvantage/disorder can be viewed as a vulnerability factor that increases susceptibility to depression following the experience of negative life events.     

Pilot study of hormone replacement therapy and menopausal symptoms, depression, and quality of life in Korean climacteric women

This cross-sectional survey compared scores on the Menopausal Symptoms Index, Depression, and the Quality of Life for 65 Korean climacteric women receiving regular hormone replacement therapy (M age=52.8 yr., SD=6.3) and 70 Korean climacteric patients not receiving such therapy (M age =51.6 yr., SD=7.1). Depression scores were positively correlated with the Menopausal Symptoms Index in both groups (r = .58 in the Therapy group and r = .50 in the Control group) and negatively correlated with scores for Quality of Life (r = -.48 in the Therapy group and r = -.68 in the Control group). Scores on the Menopausal Symptoms Index were negatively correlated with ratings of Quality of Life in both groups (r = -.53 in the Therapy group and r = -.45 in the Control group). These results suggest that hormone replacement therapy is associated with reduced Depression scores and higher Quality of Life scores in this sample of Korean climacteric women.     

The relation of child sexual abuse and depression in young women: comparisons across four ethnic groups

To investigate the relation of child sexual abuse to depression and whether this relation differed by ethnicity (African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and non-Hispanic whites), we surveyed 2,003 women between 18 and 22 years of age about family histories, sexual abuse, and depression. Reported rates of child sexual abuse were similar across ethnic groups; approximately one-third of each group reported some form of sexual abuse and about one-fifth of each ethnic group reported experiencing rape. After controlling for background characteristics identified as risk factors for both child sexual abuse and depression, severity of child sexual abuse was significantly related to depressive symptoms only for non-Hispanic whites and Mexican Americans. Child sexual abuse variables accounted for more variance in depression than background variables only for Mexican American women. Child physical abuse was the strongest predictor of adult depression and the only significant predictor for each ethnic group.     

Neuropsychopharmacologic treatment of depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders in HIV-infected individuals

How can neuropsychiatric disorders and syndromes be underdiagnosed and inadequately treated in individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus? Depression in particular is among the most prevalent diagnoses and there is a solid foundation of data from controlled clinical studies that has begun to examine the efficacy of various antidepressants in HIV-infected persons. This article summarizes essential findings pertaining to the use of psychotropic medications to treat depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders in the context of immunodeficiency. This includes discussion of clinically significant treatment considerations (eg, efficacy, side effects, drug-drug interactions) derived from the existing literature. Taken together, there is compelling evidence that psychopharmacologic intervention can improve the quality of life of mentally ill HIV-infected individuals.     

Negative life events and cognitive vulnerability to depression: Informant effects and sex differences in the prediction of depressive symptoms in middle childhood

While diathesis-stress models of cognitive vulnerability to depression (CVD) in childhood have been tested, few studies have included both parent- and child-reported negative life events, despite the fact that they provide unique information on events that may be relevant to depression risk in boys and girls. It was hypothesized that different types of stress may show moderation of CVD for boys and girls; specifically, we predicted that parent-reported stressors may moderate boys’ CVD, and that self-reported stress may play a more critical moderating role for girls. A community sample of 182 eight-year-olds completed measures of CVD at baseline, and child- and parent-reported measures of stress were collected at follow-up, one year later. Support for diathesis-stress models of CVD varied depending on child sex and the source of information on stress. Results highlight the importance of collecting multiple measures of stress in testing diathesis-stress models of CVD in middle childhood.     

A case-control study of psychosocial and aerobic exercise factors in women with symptoms of depression

The study is an examination of specific aspects of psychosocial constructs and health-promoting behavior that may be related to symptoms of depression. The authors used a case-control design to investigate possible differences between provisional social support, hardiness dimensions, and exercise behavior and related perceptions in a sample of 94 White, middle-aged women with and without symptoms of depression. The results indicated that women with symptoms of depression have significantly fewer (p < .001) specific forms of social support resources (i.e., reassurance of worth, social integration, guidance, and attachment) and significantly lower (p < .0001) perceptions of control and commitment in their lives. The results also indicated no difference in perceptions and behaviors related to physical activity between women with and without symptoms of depression. Those results suggest that provisional social support, as well as specific dimensions of hardiness, should be the focus of interventions for women with symptoms of depression.     

Moods and Memories: Elation, depression, and the remembering of the events of one's life

Three experiments investigated the influence of current mood states on the remembering of past events of one's own life. In the first and the second experiment, participants were induced to experience either the mood state of elation or the mood state of depression. They then reported events and experiences that had occurred during the previous week. In the first and the second experiments, using converging methods for assessing memory for past events, participants differentially reported past events and experiences whose affective quality was congruent with their current mood states: participants in elated mood states preferentially reported pleasant events and happy experiences, and participants in depressed mood states preferentially reported unpleasant events and unhappy experiences. Additional evidence from the second experiment suggests that the differential remembering of affectively positive or affectively negative events requires that, at the time of the remembering of these events, participants actually experience the mood states of elation or depression and not simply attempt to remember past events that could account for elation or depression. In the third experiment, designed to assess the plausibility of “experimental demand” interpretations of these findings, participants who experienced ostensibly effective mood inductions that were actually ineffective failed to manifest differential remembering of affectively positive and affectively negative events. Implications of this series of experiments for understanding the mechanisms that may link moods and memories, as well as the intrapersonal and the interpersonal consequences of mood states, are discussed.     

Personality,life events and the course of anxiety and depression

Using data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, we examined among 1322 participants with a DSM‐IV diagnosis of depression or anxiety: (i) whether positive and negative life events influence 1‐year course of anxiety and depressive symptoms; (ii) whether personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion) predict symptom course and moderate the impact of life events on symptom course; and (iii) whether life events mediate relationships of neuroticism and extraversion with symptom course. Negative life events were predictive of both anxiety and depressive symptoms, while positive life events predicted the course of depressive symptoms only. Personality traits had significant predictive and moderating effects on symptom course, though these effects were rather small. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attributions for negative life events and depression: the role of perceived control

Although perceptions of control occupied a central role in the development of learned helplessness theory, recent helplessness research has not considered controllability judgments when relating attributions to depression. Supporting the importance of this construct, the research discussed in this article found evidence that judgments of control interact with other attributions in predicting depression. Specifically, in a prospective study of stress and well-being in adolescence, internal, stable, and global attributions for negative events attributed to uncontrollable causes were found to be positively related to increases in depression (as predicted by the reformulated helplessness theory), but internal and global attributions for negative events attributed to controllable causes were found to be inversely related to increases in depression. The discussion considers the implications of the findings for understanding the nature of the relation between attributions for naturally occurring life events and depression.     

The nature of clinical depression: symptoms, syndromes, and behavior analysis

In this article we discuss the traditional behavioral models of depression and some of the challenges analyzing a phenomenon with such complex and varied features. We present the traditional model and suggest that it does not capture the complexity of the phenomenon, nor do syndromal models of depression that dominate the mainstream conceptualization of depression. Instead, we emphasize ideographic analysis and present depression as a maladaptive dysregulation of an ultimately adaptive elicited emotional response. We emphasize environmental factors, specifically aversive control and private verbal events, in terms of relational frame theory, that may transform an adaptive response into a maladaptive disorder. We consider the role of negative thought processes and rumination, common and debilitating aspects of depression that have traditionally been neglected by behavior analysts.     

Examination of a multi-factorial model of body-related experiences during pregnancy: the relationships among physical symptoms, sleep quality, depression, self-esteem, and negative body attitudes

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate relationships among women's body attitudes, physical symptoms, self-esteem, depression, and sleep quality during pregnancy. Pregnant women (N = 215) at 15–25 weeks gestation completed a questionnaire including four body image subscales assessing self-reported feeling fat, attractiveness, strength/fitness, and salience of weight and shape. Women reported on 29 pregnancy-related physical complaints, and completed the Beck Depression Inventory, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. In regressions, controlling for retrospective reports of body image, more frequent and intense physical symptoms were related to viewing the self as less strong/fit, and to poorer sleep quality and more depressive symptoms. In a multi-factorial model extending previous research, paths were found from sleep quality to depressive symptoms to self-esteem; self-esteem was found to be a mediator associated with lower scores on feeling fat and salience of weight and shape, and on higher perceived attractiveness.