Effects of induced mood on self-reported life events and perceived and received social support.

Tested the relation between mood (depressed [D], elated [E], or neutral [N]), induced by the Velten (1968) procedure, and college students' responses on a subjectively scored life events questionnaire and measures of perceived and received social support. A manipulation check showed that the mood manipulation was successful. There was a significant mood effect on the number of self-reported negative life events, with E Ss reporting the fewest. However, mood had no significant effect on the number of self-reported positive life events or the rated intensity of negative and positive events. Mood had a significant effect on perceived social support, with D Ss scoring the lowest. Self-report of received social support, however, was not affected by the mood manipulation. The findings challenge the widespread use of life event and perceived social support questionnaires whose independence from a mood-related response bias has not been adequately demonstrated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instrumentality as a life-stress moderator for early versus middle adolescents.

Used a longitudinal design to test the main and stress-buffering effects of instrumentality on measures of trait anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Ss were early (junior high school) and middle (senior high school) adolescent boys and girls. The hypothesis that instrumentality would be negatively related to psychological distress was supported by the cross-sectional and longitudinal regression analyses of every subgroup of Ss. The hypothesized stress-buffering effect of instrumentality was found in the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of senior high girls, specifically in the context of interpersonal negative events (relationship stress). The analyses for junior high girls revealed that instrumentality was beneficial only at a low level of relationship stress. There were no significant interaction effects in the regression analyses of boys. The findings suggest that, when experiencing relationship stress, instrumentality is helpful for middle adolescent girls but not for early adolescent girls. Therefore, future research on adolescents' life-stress adjustment should consider the roles of gender, age, personality, and type of life stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)