Relationship of perceived stress with depression: complete mediation by perceived control and anxiety in Iran and the United States

This study sought to clarify the importance and cross-cultural relevance of associations between generalized perceived stress and depression. Also tested was the hypothesis that perceived stress would correlate more strongly with anxiety than with depression, whereas control would be more predictive of depression than of anxiety. Relationships between perceived stress, anxiety, depression, and perceived control were examined in samples of Iranian (n = 191) and American (n = 197) undergraduates. Correlations among these variables were generally similar across the two societies. Perceived stress did predict anxiety better than depression, but perceptions of control predicted depression significantly better than anxiety only in the United States. Best fitting structural equation models revealed that anxiety and perceived control completely accounted for the linkage between perceived stress and depression in both societies. An equally acceptable and more parsimonious model described perceived stress as a consequence rather than as an antecedent of anxiety and perceived control. Structural equation models were essentially identical across the two cultures except that internal control displayed a significant negative relationship with anxiety only in Iran. This result seemed to disconfirm any possible suggestion that a supposedly individualistic process like internal control could have no noteworthy role within a presumably more collectivistic Muslim society like Iran. Overall, these data documented the importance of anxiety and perceived control in explaining the perceived stress-depression relationship cross-culturally and therefore questioned the usefulness of perceived stress in predicting depression. Whether this understanding of the stress-depression relationship deserves general acceptance will require additional studies that measure the frequency of stressful life events and that utilize a longitudinal design.