Longitudinal Associations Between Negative Life Events and Depressive Symptoms—A 9-Year Longitudinal Study on Between-Person and Within-Person Effects and the Role of Family History

Dominique Maciejewski, Eleonore van Sprang, Philip Spinhoven, Brenda Penninx

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Research has shown that negative life events contribute to the development of depression. Moreover, it has been suggested that individuals with a family history of depression experience more negative life events and are more susceptible to the effect of negative life events. However, previous studies did not differentiate stable between-person effects (interindividual differences) and temporal within-person effects (intraindividual differences). This study aims to examine the bidirectional relation between negative life events and depressive symptoms using a novel statistical method (i.e., a random intercept cross-lagged panel model) that allows to separate within-person from between-person processes. Second, we examined the role of family history in that relation. Data came from 1,771 adults (1,320 with a depressive and/or anxiety disorder, 451 controls) that were followed over 9 years (baseline, 2-, 4-, 6-, and 9-year follow-up). Questionnaires were used to measure depressive symptoms and the number of independent (i.e., events independent of someone’s symptoms) and dependent negative life events (i.e.,events more likely to be influenced by a person). Results showed that individuals with more negative life events experienced more depressive symptoms on a between-person level. Additionally, although theeffects were considerably smaller, results suggested within-person increases in dependent and independent negative life events were correlated with within-person increases in depressive symptoms. Overall, our results suggest that negative life events and depressive symptoms are more consistently associated ona between-person than on a within-person level. Thus, negative life events may rather explain differences in depressive symptoms between persons than within persons
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)707-721
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Personality and Social Psychology
Volume121
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • depressive symptoms
  • family history
  • longitudinal
  • negative life events
  • within-person effects

Cite this