Current social stressors and symptoms of depression

The author explores the relationship of current social stressors (cirumstances of daily social roles that are generally considered problematic or undesirable) to depressive symptoms. Subjects were 2,299 adults aged 18-65 in the Chicago area. Over a fourth of the variance in depressive symptoms is accounted for by five social stressors. Depression is most closely related to the social stressors of marriage and parenting, and symptoms increase proportionately to the total number of stress areas. These data suggest that a focus on intervention and prevention in areas of family and marital life is desirable.