Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of psychosocial characteristics and the role of coping style on depression in the middle aged woman, based on the stress-vulnerability model. 129 community women completed measures of past history, depression, and perfectionism at Time 1 and depression, stress, coping style, and social support 3 months later. In the present study, the psychosocial variables, which were defined as depressive vulnerability variables, consisted of intrapersonal and interpersonal variables. The intrapersonal variables included perfectionistic characteristics, and the interpersonal variables included social support and social conflict. There are three kinds of coping styles; that is, active-cognitive, active-behavior and avoidance coping. The present study examined the effects of these coping styles on depression. Initially, factor analysis of Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale(MPS) was done to analyze the perfectionism in the middle-aged woman. In the results, there were 3 dimensions: socially-prescribed perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and self-oriented perfectionism. To examine the difference between the depressed group and the non-depressed group, difference tests were done. The two groups did not differ in demographic variables but differed in past history and depression at Time 1. Of the interpersonal and intrapersonal variables, only social conflict was significant. And the results revealed that depressed women tended to choose more avoidance and less active-behavioral coping styles against stress. Finally, hierarchical regression analysis was done to find out the depressive vunerability factors. After controlling demographic variables, past history and depression at Time 1, other-oriented perfectionism characteristics, stress and avoidance coping style turned out as strongly predicted variables on depression at Time 2. The results indicate that a woman who requests others to be perfect is depressed when she copes with stress using an avoidance coping style.