Appraisals of dependent stressor controllability and severity are associated with depression and anxiety symptoms in youth

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Stress is well established as a strong risk factor for internalizing psychopathology. Learned helplessness research demonstrates that perceived controllability of stressors affects internalizing symptoms. Furthermore, subjective perceived stress is associated with psychopathology. However, most recent research has focused on measuring the frequency and expert-rated severity of stressful life events despite evidence for the importance of stress perceptions. The present study brings together past and current literatures to investigate the importance of perceived severity and controllability of recent life events in the association between stressors and internalizing symptoms. Design and Methods: We used a revised version of the Adolescent Life Events Questionnaire (ALEQ) that asked participants (ages 13–22, N = 328) to rate the frequency of 65 stressful events typical to youth, as well as the perceived stressfulness and control they felt over each event. Events were categorized prior to analysis as dependent (self-generated), independent (fateful) or neither. Results: Controllability and severity appraisals were associated with depression and anxiety symptoms, controlling for stressor frequency (which also predicted symptoms), for dependent but not independent stressors. Conclusions: These results highlight the importance of controllability and severity appraisals as potential risk factors for internalizing disorders, exposing a potential target for therapy.

Systematic Review of Preinjury Mental Health Problems as a Vulnerability Factor for Worse Outcome After Sport-Related Concussion

“…Both genetic 22 and family-environmental 3,10 risk factors for mood and anxiety disorders are present in adolescents and young adults. Depression and anxiety in youth are associated with a personal history of adverse events during childhood, 14,16,40 attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 27,35 greater life stressors, 24,33 substance misuse or abuse, 18,41 less effective coping skills, 8 less emotional awareness, 39 and lower resilience. 37 In adolescents, changing or decreasing daily activities because of physical illness or injury is associated with depression.…”

Contributions of fixed mindsets and hopelessness to anxiety and depressive symptoms: A commonality analysis approach

“…Original formulations of hopelessness theory primarily addressed the comorbidity of anxiety and depression rather than predicting anxiety directly (Maser, 1990). Early and more recent empirical work indicates hopelessness may increase risk for both anxiety and depression symptoms (Ahrens and Haaga, 1993;Fassett-Carman et al, 2019;Reardon and Williams, 2007). However, hopelessness does not predict anxiety symptoms in all circumstances (e.g.…”

Dependent Stress Mediates the Relation Between ADHD Symptoms and Depression

“…The Adolescent/Adult Life Events Questionnaire–Revised (ALEQ-R; Fassett-Carman et al, 2019), the revised version of the ALEQ (Abramson & Hankin, 2002), assesses the frequency of 63 independent and dependent stressful life events typical of adolescents and emerging adults over the past 6 months on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from (0) never to (4) always . Only dependent stressors (e.g., “Problems or arguments with teachers/professors or a boss/supervisor,” for coding see Fassett-Carman et al, 2019), were analyzed in the current study, as the hypotheses tested stress generation models.…”

“…The Adolescent/Adult Life Events Questionnaire–Revised (ALEQ-R; Fassett-Carman et al, 2019), the revised version of the ALEQ (Abramson & Hankin, 2002), assesses the frequency of 63 independent and dependent stressful life events typical of adolescents and emerging adults over the past 6 months on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from (0) never to (4) always . Only dependent stressors (e.g., “Problems or arguments with teachers/professors or a boss/supervisor,” for coding see Fassett-Carman et al, 2019), were analyzed in the current study, as the hypotheses tested stress generation models. The full questionnaire, including 23 dependent events, was administered at Time-point 1, but a shortened version including nine dependent stressors frequently experienced by students (Fassett-Carman et al, 2020) was administered in the four weekly Time-point 2 questionnaires to decrease participant burden.…”