A model of risk for major depression: effects of life stress and cognitive style vary by age

Abstract

Empirical studies increasingly attribute risk for depression to adverse life events, cognitive style, and possibly to the interaction between cognitive style and event type. We present an evidence-based model, developed with independent samples of adults and elderly adults, indicating that risk for major depression associated with these factors varies with age. According to the model, adverse events and need for control, the cognitive style that is a key feature of Beck's concept of autonomy, are significant risk factors for depression in younger adults but not in elderly adults. The cognitive style of sociotropy, characterized by a high need for relatedness and concern about disapproval, is a stable risk factor, independent of age, in posing a risk for depression. The effects of the interactions of adverse event type (achievement events and interpersonal events) and cognitive style in predicting depression each appear to vary with age, expanding prior work, which suggests that adverse events affecting one's personal vulnerability are likely to precipitate depression. Age-specific approaches to reducing risk for major depression are clinically important, and the model presented here suggests that the use of an age-specific perspective would advance research in stress-diathesis models for risk of depression.