Haehner Peter, Würtz Felix, Kritzler Sarah, Kunna Marius, Luhmann Maike, Woud Marcella L
Psychological Methods Lab, Department of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany; Individual Differences Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Mar 15;349:145-157. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.042. Epub 2024 Jan 6.
Major life events can lead to depression in adulthood. However, as predicted by several depression theories, not only the mere occurrence of major life events but also the way people perceive them determines the onset of a depression.
Based on a systematic literature search, we identified 276 studies (N = 89,600) that examined the relationship between the perception of major life events and depression. We provide an overview of how this relationship has been examined. Furthermore, we meta-analytically integrated 420 effect sizes (172 studies) on the association between the perception of major life events and depression.
Most studies relied on college student samples, were cross-sectional, and were conducted in the United States. A more negative perception of events was significantly associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms (r = 0.28). This association was robust across several design and sample characteristics. Furthermore, the perception of major life events and depression were also longitudinally associated with each other (event perception predicting later depressive symptoms: r = 0.26; depressive symptoms predicting later event perception: r = 0.17).
Longitudinal research on the relationship between depression and the perception of major life events was relatively rare impairing definite conclusions on whether the perception of life events can predict changes in depressive symptoms over time.
The perception of major life events is related to depression. However, further longitudinal research considering a range of different perceived event characteristics and using non-Western heterogeneous samples is needed to better understand their relationship.
重大生活事件可导致成年期抑郁。然而，正如几种抑郁理论所预测的那样，不仅重大生活事件的单纯发生，而且人们对这些事件的认知方式都会决定抑郁的发作。
基于系统的文献检索，我们确定了276项研究（N = 89,600），这些研究考察了重大生活事件认知与抑郁之间的关系。我们概述了这种关系是如何被研究的。此外，我们对420个效应量（来自172项研究）进行了荟萃分析，以整合重大生活事件认知与抑郁之间的关联。
大多数研究以大学生为样本，采用横断面研究方法，且在美国进行。对事件的更消极认知与更高水平的抑郁症状显著相关（r = 0.28）。这种关联在多种设计和样本特征中都很稳健。此外，重大生活事件的认知与抑郁在纵向层面上也相互关联（事件认知预测后期抑郁症状：r = 0.26；抑郁症状预测后期事件认知：r = 0.17）。
关于抑郁与重大生活事件认知之间关系的纵向研究相对较少，这妨碍了就生活事件认知是否能预测抑郁症状随时间的变化得出明确结论。
重大生活事件的认知与抑郁有关。然而，需要进一步开展纵向研究，考虑一系列不同的事件认知特征，并使用非西方的异质性样本，以更好地理解它们之间的关系。
