Life Events and Depression: the Plot Thickens

Explored increasingly complex models of the stress-depression relationship. Many contemporary studies of depression have largely neglected environmental factors, including stressors. The author's research initially incorporated stress into cognitive models of depression and demonstrated individual vulnerability to specific types of stressors. Then research on the family transmission of depression showed that family and child stressors are important but commonly neglected predictors of children's high risk for depression as offspring of depressed mothers. Recently, emphasizing the context in which depression occurs, we have shown that people contribute to the occurrence of stressors and have been exploring the predictors of stress generation. At each step, the stress-depression model grows more complex.