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Self-efficacy as a mediator between stressful life events and depressive symptoms

Differences based on history of prior depression

Donaghue Women's Health Investigator Program, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

HOLLY G. PRIGERSON, PhD

Donaghue Women's Health Investigator Program and Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, and Mental Illness, Research and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, West Haven, CT

CAROLYN M. MAZURE, PhD

Donaghue Women's Health Investigator Program and Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

Declaration of interest Sponsored by the Donaghue Women's Health Investigator Program at Yale University.

Correspondence: Dr Paul K. Maciejewski, Donaghue Women's Health Investigator Program, Yale University School of Medicine, PO Box 208091, New Haven, CT06520, USA

Background Self-efficacy, a characteristic that is protective against depressive symptoms, may be undermined by stressful life events.

Aims To estimate the effects of stressful life events on self-efficacy, and to examine self-efficacy as a mediator of the effect of stressful life events on symptoms of depression.

Method Using a sample of 2858 respondents from the longitudinal Americans' Changing Lives study, path analyses were used to evaluate interrelationships between self-efficacy, life events and symptoms of depression controlling for a variety of potentially confounding variables. Separate models were estimated for those with and without prior depression.

Results For those with prior depression, dependent life events had a significant, negative impact on self-efficacy. For those without prior depression, life events had no effect on self-efficacy.

Conclusions For those with prior depression, self-efficacy mediates approximately 40% of the effect of dependent stressful life events on symptoms of depression.

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