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The Interplay Between Life Stressors and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults

Center for Health Care Evaluation, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.

Address correspondence to Rudolf H. Moos, Center for Health Care Evaluation (152-MPD), VA Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025. E-mail: rmoos{at}stanford.edu

This study examined mutual predictive associations between life stressors and depressive symptoms in later life. A sample of late-middle-aged and older adults (N = 1,291) was surveyed at baseline and 1 year, 4 years, and 10 years later. At each contact point, participants completed an inventory that assessed chronic and acute life stressors and depressive symptoms. Over the 10-year interval, there was evidence of both social causation and social selection processes: More life stressors were associated with subsequent increases in depressive symptoms (social causation), and more depressive symptoms were associated with subsequent increases in stressors (social selection or stress generation). These findings reflect a mutual influence process in which life stressors and depressive symptoms can alter each other.