Perceived life events and presentation of depression symptoms: An examination of the pathoplasticity model

Stressful life events are commonly associated with the experience of depressive symptoms. However, more nuanced questions about how specific experiences of stress are associated with individual symptoms, while accounting for latent depression severity, referred to as pathoplastic effects, have not been extensively examined but may provide leverage for personalized interventions. Moreover, there are few multi-wave longitudinal studies that examine whether fluctuations in life events are associated with corresponding changes in specific depressive symptoms.

We relied on self-report measures of depression and perceived stressful life events, coded into twelve dimensions (e.g., loss, dependent, independent life events), that were assessed on up to seven annual assessments (total observations = 7967; N = 1414; age range = 18.9-31.7 years). We examined both within- and between-person associations involving self-reported stressful life events and symptoms.

There were few within- and between-person pathoplastic effects found at the level of specific symptoms, and some of these effects may be accounted for by mechanisms unrelated to depression. By contrast, we found consistent, robust associations between all dimensions of perceived stressful life events and overall depression severity at both within- and between-person levels.

The results suggest that stressful events play a role in the experience of depression by influencing overall symptom severity, both within- and between-person, rather than influencing the specific symptomatic expression of the syndrome.