Specificity in the Relationships Between Stressors and Depressed Mood Among Adolescents: The Roles of Gender and Self - Efficacy

Abstract

The study's aim was to test for hypothesised specificity in the relationships of stressors (interpersonal stress and worries about daily living) with depressed mood among Romanian adolescents. Six hundred and thirty adolescents in grades 7, 9 and 11 in Bucharest schools participated. Structural equation models assessed the degree to which effects of stressors on depressed mood were mediated through social support and self-efficacy, and moderated by gender and self-efficacy. Neither social support nor self-efficacy had direct or mediating roles in predicting depressed mood among girls. Among boys, social support and self-efficacy played significant roles in the connection between interpersonal stress and depressed mood. Among girls, daily worries were associated with depressed mood only among those with low self-efficacy, and interpersonal stress was associated with depressed mood only among those with high self-efficacy. The data presented here show that different stressors have different relationships to a single outcome — depressed mood — conditioned by gender and self-efficacy.

Keywords:

• interpersonal stress
• depressed mood
• social support
• self-efficacy
• gender
• adolescents
• Romania