The relationship between social vulnerability and the occurrence of severely threatening life events
- 1 February 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Psychological Medicine
- Vol. 20 (1), 157-161
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700013337
Abstract
SYNOPSIS Research on the role of life events in the onset of depression has suggested that certain vulnerability factors can increase the risk of disorder in the face of a threatening event. The role of vulnerability factors to increase the likelihood of severs events occurring in the first place has remained largelu unexplored. The vulnerability factor which has received the most attention is a lack of social support, particularly lack of a confiding relationship with a husband for women. A reanalysis of a number of published studies is undertaken; this shows that there is a positive relationship between lack of intimacy and the occurrence of adversity. The implications of this finding are briefly discussed, with emphasis on the need for a life-span developmental perspective in future life events research.Keywords
This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Camberwell Collaborative Depression Study III. Depression and Adversity in the Relatives of Depressed ProbandsThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1988
- The Camberwell Collaborative Depression Study I. Depressed Probands: Adversity and the Form of DepressionThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1988
- Loss of parent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: the role of social class position and premarital pregnancyPsychological Medicine, 1987
- Social Support and Life Events in Working Class WomenArchives of General Psychiatry, 1986
- Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis.Psychological Bulletin, 1985
- Stressful Life Events Associated with Endogenous DepressionJournal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 1985
- Misfortune and resilience: a community study of womenPsychological Medicine, 1984
- Social factors associated with depression: a retrospective community studyPsychological Medicine, 1982
- Psychiatric disorder in a rural and an urban population: 1. Aetiology of depressionPsychological Medicine, 1981
- Types of stressful life event and the onset of anxiety and depressive disordersPsychological Medicine, 1981