Abstract

ABSTRACT—People have long believed that adversity and stress contribute to emotional problems in general and to depression in particular. A considerable body of research has supported this intuition, documenting a consistent association between major stressful life events and the onset of clinical depression. However, most individuals under stress do not become depressed, sometimes depres-sion develops without prior stress, and distinguishing psychological distress from major depression can be di-agnostically challenging. In varying forms and degrees, life stress may play multiple roles in relation to major de-pression. In this article, we outline the opportunities and obstacles associated with conceptualizing depression from a life-stress perspective and discuss the implications for future research.