The proposed research examines the impact of stressful life circumstances on the psychological well-being of men and women as a basis for developing and refining intervention strategies designed to prevent depression. Particular attention is given to clarifying the role that daily life strains in the domains of work and interpersonal relationships play in the development of depression. The data are taken from four studies of men and women at different stages in the life course, three of which are longitudinal. Specific questions to be addressed in these studies: (1) What types of work and interpersonal stresses and strains are most likely to contribute to elevated levels of depression among men and women at different stages in the life course? (2) To what extent is the impact of life strains on depression mediated by different appraisals of, or patterns of coping with, particular life strains? (3) Is the use or relative efficacy of particular types of appraisals and coping patterns in preventing the development of a depressive syndrome different for different comparison groups in the population, such as men vs. women, young vs. old, and married vs. unmarried? (4) To what extent are such group differences, if they exist, a function of (a) differences in exposure to various life strains, (b) differences in situational coping resources, such as the availability of social supports and material resources, or (c) differences in personal coping resources? To investigate these questions, a variety of techniques will be employed, ranging from a descriptive analysis of subject's reports of their stressful life experiences and the relative efficacy of various strategies of coping with those experiences, to a structural modelling approach of these relationships with LISREL VI.
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