Effects of stress from current problems: comparison to major life events

The present investigation evaluated the stressful effects of self-defined problematic situations on consequent depressive and anxiety symptomatology. It was hypothesized that the frequency of problems would be a meaningful predictor of distress apart from the stress associated with major life changes. A prospective design was used to evaluate this predictive relationship. Further, prior levels of distress served as relevant covariates to control for premorbid status. Results from 129 college students were found to be supportive of the major hypothesis.