A new study has found that how individuals judge stress is linked to their experience of depression. Researchers used standardized vignettes to assess stress appraisal, which the participants’ personal judgments of how severe a stressful event was. The findings suggest that early life adversity and neuroticism are associated with more negative perceptions of stress, while depression symptoms can exacerbate this effect.
The study involved 237 emerging adults who rated hypothetical stressful scenarios as more or less severe based on the vignettes. The results showed a correlation between the participants’ perceived severity ratings and their objective ratings by researchers. However, individuals with early life adversity and higher levels of neuroticism did not perceive stressors as more severe than others.
Surprisingly, those who experienced more depression symptoms in the past year rated stressful scenarios as more negative on average, even when adjusting for other factors such as neuroticism. This suggests that depression may contribute to a heightened reactivity to escalating stress.
The study’s findings have important implications for understanding mental health and could inform the development of new treatments for depression. Future research is needed to explore these results in different populations and track individuals over time to see if their patterns of stress appraisal can predict future mental health outcomes.
Source: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-find-a-difficult-past-may-create-a-kind-of-psychological-inoculation-against-future-stress