The associations between stressful life events and depression among students in a university in Botswana

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leano Tumelo Hetolang ◽  
Kennedy Amone-P’Olak
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Severe Depression ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Treatment Of Depression ◽  
A Cell ◽  
And Gender ◽  
As Relationship

Depression is common among university students and often impacts their career development and health. Stressful life events might be associated with depression but remain to be studied among young adults, especially in non-Western settings. Depression and stressful life events were assessed in 304 students at a university in Botswana ( M = 21.56, standard deviation = 1.86) using the 21-item Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) and the 26-Item Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Regression models were fitted to study the associations between stressful life events and depression while a one-way between-subjects analysis of variance was performed to compare subjects with minimal, mild, moderate, and severe depression on reporting stressful life events. Depression was present in 22 % of the participants (severe in 8.2% and moderate in 13.8%). More than half of the participants reported 10 or more stressful life events. Stressful life events significantly predicted depression (β = .37, 0.13–0.60). When all the other stressful life events and gender were adjusted for each other, loss of a cell phone, tablet, or laptop and relationship difficulties with peers, parents, and lecturers independently predicted depression. Subjects with minimal, mild, moderate, and severe depression significantly differed on reporting stressful life events ( F(3, 300) = 12.69, p < .001). Depression is not only common but significantly and increasingly associated with reporting more stressful life events. Types of stressful life events such as relationship difficulties and losses were uniquely associated with depression and should be considered in planning interventions and treatment of depression on university campuses.

Recent and childhood adversities in patients with depressive disorders

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S404-S404
Author(s):  
M. Abdelhameed ◽  
A. Kamal ◽  
N. Abdelfadeel ◽  
S. Morsy
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Severe Depression ◽  
Depressive Illness ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Emotional Neglect

IntroductionA strong association is believed to exist between stressful life events and the development of depressive disorders. Childhood adverse experiences contribute to person's vulnerability to such disorders.ObjectiveThe study of the complex interplay between child abuse, stressful life events and the development of depression.AimsTo study the effect of type and severity of child abuse and magnitude of pre-onset stress on the severity and duration of adulthood depression.MethodsSeventy-five patients with depressive disorders not having a comorbid mental illness were studied using Social Readjustment Rating scale (SRRS) and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).ResultsThe mean age of the patients was 34.96 ± 12.32 years, 69.3% of patients were females, duration of the illness ranged from 2–288 weeks with a mean of 30.94 ± 54.61 and 36% of the sample had severe depression. There was a statistically significant relationship between urban residence and magnitude of stress (P = 0.049), married patients suffered less severe depression than unmarried ones (P = 0.02) and a positive and significant correlation was found between magnitude of stress and severity of depression (P ≤ 0.001).Duration of depressive illness was positively and significantly correlated to the raw score of SRRS and to the severity of emotional neglect as measured by CTQ (P = 0.02 and 0.04 respectively).ConclusionsThe development of depression in adulthood is significantly associated with past exposure to child abuse and stressful life events. Childhood history of emotional neglect and magnitude of pre-onset stress may be contributing factors to duration of depressive illness.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Does Religion/Spirituality Modify the Association of Stressful Life Events and Suicidal Ideation in Australian Men?

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Krysinska ◽  
Matthew Spittal ◽  
Jane Pirkis ◽  
Dianne Currier
Keyword(s):  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Male Health ◽  
National Cohort ◽  
Relationship Breakdown ◽  
As Relationship ◽  
New Si

In a large population cohort of Australian men, we previously observed that stressful life events were associated with increased suicidal ideation (SI). Many stressful life events, such as relationship breakdown and financial difficulties, occur frequently, yet most men who experience them do not have suicidal thoughts. There is some evidence that religious belief may be protective against suicidal behaviour. This study examined if attendance of religious service and/or perceived importance of religion/spirituality to participants modifies the association between stressful life events and suicidal thinking. Our analysis included 10,588 men who were aged 18 years or older who participated in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health (Ten to Men), a national cohort study of Australian males. The study compared demographic, protective and risk factors for four subgroups: No SI, Remitted SI, New SI, and Chronic SI between Wave 1 (October 2013 to July 2014) and Wave 2 (November 2015 to May 2016) of the study and conducted logistic regression for these four outcomes. The study found a protective effect for attendance of religious services for the onset of New SI at Wave 2. Importance of religion/spirituality was positively related to Chronic SI. There were no effects of service attendance or importance for any of the other SI outcomes. We discuss results of the study in relation to social connection and broader contextual factors, such as secularization.

Psychophysical Scaling of Stressful Life Events

1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 256-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian S. Crandall
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Psychophysical Scaling ◽  
Social Readjustment Rating Scale ◽  
Better Than

Birnbaum and Sotoodeh ( PS 2(4), 1991, pp. 236–240) used psychophysical techniques to generate severity weightings for the stressful life events from Holmes and Rake's (1967) Social Readjustment Rating Scale. The techniques Birnhaum and Sotoodeh applied are designed to uncover the structure of judgments and decisions, but in the context of predicting physical symptoms, they do not improve on the original weightings published in 1967. Neither the original Holmes and Rahe weights nor Birnbaum and Sotoodeh's weights were significantly better than unit weighting (1 if event occurred, 0 if not) for predicting physical symptoms of 115 college students.

A Longitudinal Analysis of Stressful Life Events, Smoking Behaviors, and Gender Differences in a Multicultural Sample of Adolescents

2008 ◽  
Vol 43 (11) ◽  
pp. 1521-1543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara L. Booker ◽  
Jennifer B. Unger ◽  
Stanley P. Azen ◽  
Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati ◽  
Brian Lickel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Longitudinal Analysis ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Smoking Behaviors ◽  
And Gender

Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms, Dysfunctional Attitudes and Social Aspects in Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Kovács ◽  
Ferenc Kovács
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Dysfunctional Attitudes ◽  
Stressful Life ◽  
Inflammatory Bowel ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Irritable Bowel

Objective: Biopsychosocial models for both organic and functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders have been described in the recent literature. The objective of this study was to give further data to this model by assessing stressful life events, social support, psychopathological symptoms, and dysfunctional attitudes in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and healthy subjects. Method: Age- and gender-matched IBS and IBD patients presenting at a tertiary care gastroenterological center completed self-reported questionnaires on stressful life events, social support, depressive and anxiety symptoms and dysfunctional attitudes. For comparative purposes, data from an age- and gender-matched healthy control group were obtained. Results: No significant differences were found between the groups regarding stressful life events and social support. Both patient groups had higher depressive and anxiety symptoms compared to healthy subjects, and IBS patients had higher depressive scores compared to IBD patients. IBS patients had more dysfunctional attitudes compared to both IBD and healthy subjects, while IBD and healthy subjects did not differ on dysfunctional attitudes. Conclusions: GI patient status is associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms, in addition IBS patients have more severe depressive symptoms and depressogenic dysfunctional attitudes. The fact that functional GI patients are characterized by more severe psychological, but not social parameters, supports the hypothesis that IBS might be related to the range of depressive disorders.

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