Hallford David John, Ricarte Jorge Javier, Hermans Dirk
School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
Applied Cognitive Psychology Unit Institute of Neurological Disabilities (IDINE), Department of Psychology, School of Education, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2021 Mar 18;12:625429. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.625429. eCollection 2021.
The coherence of autobiographical memories plays an important role in psychological well-being, as borne out by recent studies. This study aimed to advance this understanding by assessing whether coherence predicted depressive symptoms over time in adults. Further, it aimed to specify mediators through which this association might occur, namely psychological resources of self-esteem self-efficacy, meaning in life, and optimism. A sample of 160 participants ( age = 26.4, = 3.2, 58.1% women) completed surveys at three time-points spaced 1 week apart. The surveys contained measures of the perceived coherence of life stories and autobiographical memories, psychological resources, and depressive symptoms. The results of a path analysis model, controlling for depressive symptoms at baseline, indicated that perceived causal coherence was the only unique predictor of later depressive symptoms, and that this occurred through positive self-concept, represented by self-esteem and self-efficacy. Limitations of the study include no examination of cultural background as a moderating factor and the short time-intervals. Overall, the findings provide further evidence that the perception of how events have unfolded and impacted on one's life and sense of self is particularly important in mitigating depressive symptoms. It extends on our understanding by showing this occurs through changes in self-concept.
近期研究表明，自传体记忆的连贯性在心理健康中起着重要作用。本研究旨在通过评估连贯性是否能预测成年人随时间推移的抑郁症状，来深化这一认识。此外，研究旨在明确这种关联可能通过的中介因素，即自尊、自我效能感、生活意义和乐观主义等心理资源。160名参与者（年龄=26.4岁，标准差=3.2，58.1%为女性）组成的样本在间隔1周的三个时间点完成了调查。这些调查包含了对生活故事和自传体记忆的感知连贯性、心理资源以及抑郁症状的测量。在控制基线抑郁症状的路径分析模型结果表明，感知到的因果连贯性是后期抑郁症状的唯一独特预测因素，且这是通过以自尊和自我效能感为代表的积极自我概念实现的。该研究的局限性包括未将文化背景作为调节因素进行考察以及时间间隔较短。总体而言，研究结果进一步证明，对事件如何展开以及如何影响一个人的生活和自我意识的感知，在减轻抑郁症状方面尤为重要。通过表明这是通过自我概念的变化发生的，扩展了我们的理解。
