Gender differences in life events prior to onset of major depressive disorder: The moderating effect of age.

Theoretical models attempting to explain why approximately twice as many women as men suffer from depression often involve the role of stressful life events. However, detailed empirical evidence regarding gender differences in rates of life events that precede onset of depression is lacking, due in part to the common use of checklist assessments of stress that have been shown to possess poor validity. The present study reports on a combined sample of 375 individuals drawn from 4 studies in which all participants were diagnosed with major depressive disorder and assessed with the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (Bifulco et al., 1989), a state-of-the-art contextual interview and life stress rating system. Women reported significantly more severe and nonsevere, independent and dependent, and other-focused and subject-focused life events prior to onset of depression than did men. Further, these relations were significantly moderated by age, such that gender differences in rates of most types of events were found primarily in young adulthood. These results are discussed in term of their implications for understanding the etiological role of stressful life events in depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional reactivity to daily events in major and minor depression.

Although emotional dysfunction is an important aspect of major depressive disorder (MDD), it has rarely been studied in daily life. Peeters, Nicolson, Berkhof, Delespaul, and deVries (2003) observed a surprising mood-brightening effect when individuals with MDD reported greater reactivity to positive events. To better understand this phenomenon, we conducted a multimethod assessment of emotional reactivity to daily life events, obtaining detailed reports of appraisals and event characteristics using the experience-sampling method and the Day Reconstruction Method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004) in 35 individuals currently experiencing a major depressive episode, 26 in a minor depressive (mD) episode, and 38 never-depressed healthy controls. Relative to healthy controls, both mood-disordered groups reported greater daily negative affect and lower positive affect and reported events as less pleasant, more unpleasant, and more stressful. Importantly, MDD and mD individuals reported greater reductions in negative affect following positive events, an effect that converged across assessment methods and was not explained by differences in prevailing affect, event appraisals, or medications. Implications of this curious mood-brightening effect are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental relations between depressive symptoms, minor hassles, and major events from adolescence through age 30 years.

Stress generation and stress exposure models of the relations among depressive symptoms, minor hassles, and major event stress were investigated among 815 community-dwelling participants. Autoregressive latent trajectory models were constructed to examine latent growth patterns from ages 15 years to 30 years and to test 1-year lagged, reciprocal paths between depressive symptoms and stress constructs. Results indicated significant cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between depressive symptoms and both stress constructs at the latent level. At the manifest level, lagged paths from hassles at 1 year to depressive symptoms at the next year were significant between ages 17 years and 24 years. Significant cross-sectional paths between major events and depressive symptoms were found between ages 24 years and 28 years, and modest support was found for lagged paths from depressive symptoms to major events 1 year later. Findings generally suggest a high degree of covariation in depressive symptoms and stress concurrently and over time. One-year lagged predictive effects net of the associations between individuals' latent trajectories appear to be weak, constrained to specific time periods, and most consistent with a stress exposure effect of hassles on depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of daily events on mood states in major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by high negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA), but little is known about emotional reactivity in daily life. The authors used experience sampling methodology to investigate changes in NA and PA following minor daily events in MDD compared with healthy participants. Contrary to expectation, MDD participants did not report more frequent negative events, although they did report fewer positive events. Multilevel regression showed that both NA and PA responses to negative events were blunted in the MDD group, whereas responses to positive events were enhanced. NA responses to negative events persisted longer in MDD participants. Depressed participants with a positive family history or longer current episodes showed relatively greater NA responses to negative events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional self-disclosure and emotional avoidance: Relations with symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Research suggests that individuals with heightened symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders engage in diminished emotional disclosure. On the basis of emotion regulation theories, the authors hypothesized that this symptom–disclosure relationship would be mediated by the avoidance of emotional experience and expression. In Study 1, college students (N = 831) completed measures of depression and anxiety symptoms, measures of tendencies to avoid emotional expression, and measures of tendencies to self-disclose distress. Structural equation modeling revealed that anhedonic depression and anxious arousal were associated with lessened emotional self-disclosure tendencies as mediated by avoidance of emotional expression. In Study 2, participants (N = 153) completed new measures of depression and anxiety symptoms, reflected on the most significant emotional event experienced during the past week, and rated their avoidance of emotion about the event and their self-disclosure of the event. Depression (but not anxiety) symptoms were negatively related to the disclosure of a specific event, but avoidance of emotional experience did not mediate this depression–disclosure relationship. These findings extend emotion dysregulation theory and suggest that depressive symptoms in particular are associated with reduced emotional disclosure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memories of social interactions: Age differences in emotional intensity.

The current study examined age differences in the intensity of emotions experienced during social interactions. Because emotions are felt most intensely in situations central to motivational goals, age differences in emotional intensity may exist in social situations that meet the goals for one age group more than the other. Guided by theories of emotional intensity and socioemotional selectivity, it was hypothesized that social partner type would elicit different affective responses by age. Younger (n = 71) and older (n = 71) adults recalled experiences of positive and negative emotions with new friends, established friends, and family members from the prior week. Compared with younger adults, older adults reported lower intensity positive emotions with new friends, similarly intense positive emotions with established friends, and higher intensity positive emotions with family members. Older adults reported lower intensity negative emotions for all social partners than did younger adults, but this difference was most pronounced for interactions with new friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The moderating role of cognitive control deficits in the link from emotional dissonance to burnout symptoms and absenteeism.

The present study examines whether cognitive control deficits (CCDs) as a personal vulnerability factor amplify the relationship between emotional dissonance (ED; perceived discrepancy between felt and expressed emotions) and burnout symptoms (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) as well as absenteeism. CCDs refer to daily failures and impairments of attention regulation, impulse control, and memory. The prediction of the moderator effect of CCDs draws on the argument that portraying emotions which are not genuinely felt is a form of self-regulation taxing and depleting a limited resource capacity. Interindividual differences in the resource capacity are reflected by the measure of CCDs. Drawing on two German samples (one cross-sectional and one longitudinal sample; NTOTAL = 645) of service employees, the present study analyzed interactive effects of ED and CCDs on exhaustion, depersonalization, and two indicators of absenteeism. As was hypothesized, latent moderated structural equation modeling revealed that the adverse impacts of ED on both burnout symptoms and absence behavior were amplified as a function of CCDs. Theoretical and practical implications of the present results will be discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of gender differences in depressive symptoms from age 50 to 80.

The Obvious Depression Scale was administered to 739 community residents at ages 50, 60, and 80 years, with 151 present at all waves. Although selective attrition influenced the level of depressive symptoms in cross-sectional vs. longitudinal samples, both sets of analyses revealed higher scores in women than in men at ages 50 and 60, but not at age 80. Men showed increases in depressive symptoms from age 60 to 80, but women did not (interaction p ?     

Depression history and coping with chronic pain: A daily process analysis.

This study examined how a previous episode of depression is related to daily pain and reactions to pain among individuals with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome. Seventy-one women with fibromyalgia (including 30 who were previously depressed) rated their pain and mood 3 times daily for 30 days. Each night, participants rated the extent to which they responded to pain by catastrophizing, how much control they had over that day's pain, their ways of coping with pain that day, and the effectiveness of their coping efforts. Multivariate multilevel regression models revealed that after controlling for neuroticism and current depressive symptoms, formerly depressed and never-depressed individuals differed in how they coped with increased pain and in how they appraised the efficacy of their coping efforts. Formerly depressed participants who also reported more current depressive symptoms showed a greater decline in pleasant mood on more painful days than did formerly depressed participants who were experiencing fewer current depressive symptoms. These findings illustrate how a history of depression can be captured in the dynamics of daily life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specifying emotional information: Regulation of emotional intensity via executive processes.

The degree of specificity at which emotional information is activated might determine evoked emotional intensity. However, the nature of this effect remains unclear. Four studies tested (a) whether people hold the na?ve theory that activating specific details of emotional information arouses acute feelings; (b) whether an emotionally distressed population (social phobics) also holds that theory; and (c) whether voluntarily focusing on specific aspects of a distressing situation reduces its emotional impact. Results indicate that control as well as emotionally distressed people hold a na?ve theory that specifying emotion increases its intensity. However, Studies 3 and 4 showed that voluntarily elaborating specific aspects of a distressing situation reduces distress. Results are discussed in terms of voluntary versus automatic processing of emotional information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disentangling the prospective relations between maladaptive cognitions and depressive symptoms.

In a four-wave, cohort-longitudinal design with a community sample of 515 children and adolescents (grades 2 through 9), this study examined the longitudinal structure of and prospective interrelations between maladaptive cognitions and depressive symptoms. Multigroup structural equation modeling generated four major findings. First, the longitudinal structures of maladaptive cognitions and depressive symptoms consist of a single time-invariant factor and a series of time-varying factors. Second, evidence supported a model in which depressive symptoms predicted negative cognitions but not the reverse. Third, the time-invariant components of cognition and depression were highly correlated. Fourth, the strength of the depression-to-cognition relation increased with age. Implications regarding the mechanisms underlying clinical interventions with depressed children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Co-occurring delinquency and depressive symptoms of adolescent boys and girls: A dual trajectory modeling approach.

Co-occurring trajectories of delinquent behavior and depressive symptoms and their correlates were examined in a longitudinal sample of 985 middle-adolescent boys and girls (mean age = 15.54 years at Time 1). Dual trajectory analysis was used to identify the co-occurring trajectories. For boys (n = 472), 4 delinquency and 4 depression trajectory groups were found. For girls (n = 513), 3 delinquency and 3 depression trajectory groups were identified. The linkage between co-occurring trajectories was higher for girls than for boys. Stressful life events and childhood precursors of the outcomes predicted trajectory group membership for both genders fairly consistently. Findings suggest heterogeneity in developmental courses of delinquent behavior and depressive symptoms across adolescent boys and girls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bidirectional relations of religious orientation and depressive symptoms in adolescents: A short-term longitudinal study.

Religious orientation can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic: intrinsically oriented individuals “live their religion,” whereas extrinsically oriented individuals practice religion mainly to gain external benefits. In adults, depression has been found to correlate negatively with intrinsic religious orientation and positively with extrinsic orientation. Studies of the relation between religiosity and depression typically have not been longitudinal, conducted with adolescents, controlled for the influence of other factors associated with depression (i.e., negative cognitions), or examined the reverse relation of depression predicting religious orientation. Our 4-month longitudinal study of 273 ninth-grade students addressed these issues. Results showed that higher intrinsic religious orientation measured at baseline significantly predicted lower self-reported depressive symptoms 4 months later, controlling for initial level of depressive symptoms and cognitive style; in contrast, extrinsic orientation and the interaction between religious orientation and life events did not significantly predict later depressive symptoms. Self-reported depressive symptoms, however, did not predict either intrinsic or extrinsic religious orientation 4 months later. Factors contributing to different findings for adolescents versus adults in the relation between extrinsic religious orientation and depression are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Me against myself: Motivational conflicts and emotional development in adulthood.

Two studies investigated adult age differences in the frequency and emotional consequences of motivational conflicts (i.e., feeling that one wants to or should do something else in a given situation). Study 1 compared younger and older adults. Study 2 included a more age-heterogeneous sample ranging from 20 to 70 years. Data were obtained using diary and experience-sampling methods. Multilevel regression showed that motivational conflict was associated with lower emotional well-being. With age, the frequency of motivational conflict decreased, while emotional well-being increased. Importantly, the age-related decrease in motivational conflicts partly accounted for the age-related increase in emotional well-being. Findings were consistent across studies and robust after the authors controlled for age differences in a number of control variables including time use. The authors conclude that an age-related decrease in motivational conflicts in daily life may be among the factors underlying the positive development of emotional well-being into older adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tightly linked systems: Reciprocal relations between maternal depressive symptoms and maternal reports of adolescent externalizing behavior.

The frequently observed link between maternal depressive symptoms and heightened maternal reporting of adolescent externalizing behavior was examined from an integrative, systems perspective using a community sample of 180 adolescents, their mothers, fathers, and close peers, assessed twice over a 3-year period. Consistent with this perspective, the maternal depression–adolescent externalizing link was found to reflect not simply maternal reporting biases, but heightened maternal sensitivity to independently observable teen misbehavior as well as long-term, predictive links between maternal symptoms and teen behavior. Maternal depressive symptoms predicted relative increases over time in teen externalizing behavior. Child effects were also found, however, in which teen externalizing behavior predicted future relative increases in maternal depressive symptoms. Findings are interpreted as revealing a tightly linked behavioral-affective system in families with mothers experiencing depressive symptoms and teens engaged in externalizing behavior and further suggest that research on depressive symptoms in women with adolescent offspring should now consider offspring externalizing behaviors as a significant risk factor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reported exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors: The roles of adult age and global perceived stress.

A central goal of daily stress research is to identify resilience and vulnerability factors associated with exposure and reactivity to daily stressors. The present study examined how age differences and global perceptions of stress relate to exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors. Sixty-seven younger (Mage = 20) and 116 older (Mage = 80) adults completed a daily stress diary and measures of positive and negative affect on 6 days over a 14-day period. Participants also completed a measure of global perceived stress. Results revealed that reported exposure to daily stressors is reduced in old age but that emotional reactivity to daily stressors did not differ between younger and older adults. Global perceived stress was associated with greater reported exposure to daily stressors in older adults and greater stress-related increases in negative affect in younger adults. Furthermore, across days on which daily stressors were reported, intraindividual variability in the number and severity of stressors reported was associated with increased negative affect, but only among younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood reactivity to daily negative events in early adolescence: Relationship to risk for psychopathology.

Emotional responses to negative daily experiences in young adolescents may provide important clues to the development of psychopathology, but research is lacking. This study assessed momentary mood reactivity to daily events as a function of risk profile in a school sample, ages 11-14. High-risk (HR, n = 25) and low-risk (LR, n = 106) subgroups completed frequent self-reports of mood and events for 5 days. HR adolescents reported more negative events involving family and peers. Multilevel modeling results showed that negative events, especially if stressful, were associated with increased negative and decreased positive affects, with heightened responses in HR adolescents. HR adolescents with greater stress over the last 3 months showed additional increases in depressed mood following negative events. Altered reactivity to and dysfunctional appraisals of daily events may link adolescent risk profiles to later mental health problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of activity restriction in poststroke depressive symptoms.

Objective: Little is known about the determinants of poststroke depression. The Activity Restriction Model of Depressed Affect (ARMDA) may be helpful in understanding poststroke depression but has never been tested in that context. The goal of this study was to examine the relation between activity restriction and depressive symptoms in stroke survivors during the period following discharge from the hospital. Method: Participants (N = 197) were assessed on three occasions: (1) time 1 (T1), 3 weeks following discharge; (2) time 2 (T2), 3 months after discharge; and (3) time 3 (T3), 6 months after discharge. Results: Although both stroke severity and activity restriction were significantly related to depressive symptoms, the relation between stroke severity and depression was no longer significant after controlling for activity restriction. Moreover, restrictions in daily activities and social roles were both related to depressive symptoms, but these relations were found to vary during the course of the period following discharge. Conclusions: These findings support the ARMDA and have practical implications for the prevention of poststroke depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When customers lash out: The effects of customer interactional injustice on emotional labor and the mediating role of discrete emotions.

Using affective events theory to integrate multifoci justice and emotional labor (EL), this lab study examined the effects of customer interactional justice on EL perceived by both the self and others. Participants played the role of customer-service representatives in a workplace simulation and were exposed to either interactionally fair or unfair customers. Results showed that unfairly treated participants engaged in higher levels of EL and found it more difficult to comply with display rules than did participants who were fairly treated. The above link was partially mediated by anger. Our findings suggest that customers are a viable source of justice, and customer behavior impacts the effort required of service workers to adhere to organizationally sanctioned emotional display rules. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)