Longitudinal associations between positive life events and depression: The roles of optimism and self-schemata.

= 119, 79.83% female). At baseline, participants (49.74% with current major depression) completed measures of depression, optimism, and self-schema. At 6-month follow-up, participants were administered a measure of depressive symptom severity and a contextual life event interview assessing PLEs since baseline. Dependent PLEs, specifically interpersonal dependent PLEs, prospectively predicted fewer depressive symptoms. Optimism and positive self-schemata prospectively predicted dependent PLEs, specifically interpersonal dependent PLEs. PLE generation mediated the negative association between optimism and prospective depressive symptoms. Independent PLEs were largely unassociated with PLE exposure and generation. Findings highlight the interpersonal nature of PLEs in depression. Clinical implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).