Cognitive vulnerability to depressive symptoms among men and women

Abstract

Previous research examining Beck's diathesis-stress model of depression has been conducted with combined samples of men and women or with female subjects alone. In the present study, the moderating effect of dysfunctional attitudes on the relations of depression with both social support and stressful life events was investigated separately for men and women. A large sample of subjects completed measures of depression twice, 3 months apart, as well as measures of dysfunctional attitudes, social support, and stressful life events. The results indicated that among women, the interaction of dysfunctional attitudes with social support, but not with stressful life events, significantly predicted the severity of subsequent depressive symptoms. In contrast, dysfunctional attitudes did not have either a main or a moderating effect among men. Potential subtypes of cognitive vulnerability to depression were also explored in this study, although the results suggested that the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale may be best employed as a unitary measure of vulnerability to depressive symptoms in response to negative interpersonal experiences. These findings are discussed with reference to types of vulnerability and precipitating events, and to sex differences in the development and maintenance of depressive symptoms.