Psychosocial Predictors of Depression

The association between status attributes, personal resources, life stress, physical health, and occurrence of depressive symptoms nine years later was assessed by the 1965 Human Population Laboratory survey of a random sample of 6,928 adults in Alameda County, California, and by a subsequent follow-up survey in 1974. In multiple logistic analyses, depressive symptoms at baseline, low education, physical disability or presence of chronic conditions, poor perceived health, personal uncertainty, residential move, job loss, money problems, anomy, and social isolation were independently associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms at the nine-year follow-up. Age, low income, ethnicity, marital status, separation or divorce, and health practices at baseline were unrelated to depressive symptoms. These results underscore both the multifactorial nature of depression and the importance of prospective analyses of depressive phenomena.