Abstract
The present study investigated whether minor stressful life events predict subsequent psychopathology scores, both before and after prior mental health status is controlled for, and whether prior mental health status predicts subsequent reporting of minor life events, in a mixed-sex sample of normal undergraduate subjects. Stressful life events were assessed via the Hassles Scale (HS; Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer & Lazarus, 1981), and psychopathology was assessed via (1) the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90; Derogatis, Lipman & Covi, 1973); (2) the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised (PDQ-R; Hyler et al., 1988); and (3) the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL; Zuckerman & Lubin, 1965). Results of this research were that (1) minor stressful life events predicted subsequent psychopathology scores when prior mental health status was not controlled for; (2) minor life events failed to predict subsequent psychopathology scores when prior mental health status was controlled for; and (3) prior mental health status predicted subsequent reporting of minor life events. Findings did not change substantially when the HS was modified to eliminate items that were redundant or likely to be confounded with health status, and stress–psychopathology correlations were recalculated. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the life-event–psychopathology relationship are discussed in the context of previous research in this area. Suggestions for future research are offered.