Positive life events as a moderator of stress-related depressive symptoms

This study examines the relationships among positive life events, negative life events, and depressive symptoms in a sample of college students. Consi stent with predictions the results of a hierarchical multiple regression in dicated a significant main effect for negative life events in predicting de pressive symptoms such that increases in negative life events were associat ed with increases in depressive symptoms. There was also significant intera ction between positive and negative life events such that the depressive ef fects of higher levels of negative life events seem to be reduced for subje cts who had also experienced higher levels of positive life events.