Undesirable Life Events and Depression: The Role of Event Appraisals and Social Support

The relationship between undesirable life events, attributions and perceptions of those events, social support, and depression was tested in a retrospective study of 114 college students. Undesirable life events were significantly related to depression for females but not for males. Social support moderated this relationship for females, but was associated directly with depression for males. Depressed mood was associated with appraisals of undesirable events as upsetting, involving uncertainty, and likely to recur, for males, and with appraisals of events as involving uncertainty and having stable and global causes, for females. Factor analysis of event appraisals revealed three factors, labeled impact, control, and preparedness. For males and females, depressed mood was associated with impact, but not control or preparedness; nor was depressed mood associated with the interaction of events and event appraisals. Finally, except that preparedness and support appraisals were associated for males, event perceptions and support appraisals were unrelated.