Stress generation hypothesis of depressive symptoms in interpersonal stressful life events: The roles of cognitive triad and coping styles via structural equation modeling

The Stress Generation Hypothesis (SGH) suggests that depressive symptoms lead to stressful interpersonal life events. Based on this hypothesis, a theoretical model was proposed, which tested whether depressive symptoms predict interpersonal conflict via the cognitive triad, emotion-focused coping, and conflict tendency. A non-clinical sample of undergraduate university students (N = 313) participated in the present study. Most participants were female (251 women, 62 men). The mean age of the sample was 20.27 (SD = 3.75). Participants completed a questionnaire set composed of the Beck Depression Inventory, Cognitive Triad Inventory, The Ways of Coping Scale, Conflict Tendency Scale, and Form of Conflict in Close Relationships. According to the model, depressive symptoms were significantly associated with emotion-focused coping and negative cognitive triad, both of which were related with conflict tendency that was in turn associated with conflict frequency. The model explained 24% of the variance in conflict frequency. In future studies and psychotherapy practice, depressive symptoms, emotion-focused coping, and negative attributions about the self, others, and the future should be taken into account with regard to interpersonal conflict.