Causes of Depression in College Students: A Cross-Lagged Panel Correlational Analysis

Abstract

A study was conducted over a 6-wk. period to investigate factors associated with the development of depression among college students. Subjects were 134 first-semester freshmen conscripted from the general psychology subject pool. Scores were obtained from self-report questionnaires involving measures of life events, social support, and cognitive appraisal at the beginning of the semester and again later. The result of stepwise multiple regression analyses of Time 1 and Time 2 administrations indicated that the variables most strongly and consistently associated with depression were loneliness, interpersonal mistrust, and neuroticism. Two-panel cross-lagged correlational analyses indicated that loneliness preceded depression. Moreover, the data suggested that interpersonal mistrust and neuroticism were related to depression through the variable of loneliness.