Abstract

The present study. based upon a control theoretical (cybernetic) approach, examined the role of personal, social, and religious coping resources as mediators of the relation between life stress and depression. 314 (cross-sectional) and 104 (longitudinal) participants reported on life stress, coping resources, and depression. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analyses. The results indicate, in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses that (1) personal coping resources and social coping resources buffered the effects of life stress on depression: (2) personal coping resources demonstrated their effectiveness as mediators for controllable life stress, while social coping resources for uncontrollable life stress: (3) when personal coping was subdivided into two different kinds of control perception (capacity vs. contingency), depression was only moderated by capacity control (defined as the perception that a person has the ability to control desired outcomes): (4) the "specificity hypothesis" of social support (i.e., social coping resources), that a particular kind of social support is effective only in relation to a corresponding kind of life stress, was not confirmed: and (5) religious coping resources (i.e., the perception of God as benevolent) were shown to be mediators only for believers. The discussion of these results highlights the need for a comprehensive model of coping resources, and illustrates the value of a control theoretical framework.