Background/Purpose Population-based assessments of college students' health status have demonstrated that symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety are common. The transactional model of stress suggests that high levels of optimism (i.e., a tendency to anticipate favorable outcomes) may lessen appraised stress and abate symptoms of depression and anxiety. Given the scarcity of data examining the aforementioned theoretical propositions, the purpose of the present study was to examine the direct and interactive (or moderating) effects of appraised stress and optimism in predicting symptoms of depression and anxiety in a college-student sample.
Method A cross-sectional, self-report format was used with male (n = 172) and female (n = 181) college students completing previously validated measures of appraised stress, dispositional optimism, depressive symptoms, and anxiety.
Analysis/Results Hierarchical, multiple-regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the relative contributions of appraised stress and optimism in predicting symptoms of depression and anxiety. Significant first-order effects emerged for appraised stress and optimism in the prediction of both depression and anxiety. The interaction term reflecting the product of appraised stress and optimism also was significant and indicated that decreases in optimism exacerbate depression and anxiety in instances of high appraised stress.
Conclusions The data provide solid support for the stress-buffering effect of optimism in college students. Implications include the potential benefits to be gained by the promotion of an adaptive, future-oriented perspective (i.e., optimism) into treatment approaches for stressed students, particular those who are expressing depressive symptoms and anxiety.
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