Specificity in the Relationships Between Stressors and Psychological Distress among Romanian Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis

Abstract

The aim of the study was to test for specificity in associations between psychosocial stressors (interpersonal problems, worries about daily living), distress (depressed mood, anxiety) and psychosocial resources (social support, self-efficacy). The data are from 402 Romanian adults who participated in a two-wave panel study. Structural equation models documented specific paths from (a) interpersonal stress to anxiety, (b) worries to depressive mood and to anxiety, mediated by self-efficacy, and (c) social support to depressive mood. Neither gender nor self-efficacy moderated stressor–distress relationships. These results support the specificity hypothesis. In these data, psychosocial stress–distress relationships are specific, with temporal specificity demonstrated for both direct and resource-mediated relationships. Research on psychosocial stress should therefore in future concentrate on specific, rather than general, constructs/ measures of stressors and of distress.

Keywords:

• interpersonal stress
• depressed mood
• anxiety
• social support
• self-efficacy
• Romania