Relation between Depressive Symptoms and Stressful Life Events - Research Paper Example

Findings suggest that factors causing stress are closely related to depression. This is to an extent that both appear to share the same developmental process (Hammen et al, 1985, 1992).

Robert and Pianta statistically analyze results obtained based on stressful life events about depression. Several researchers claimed that uncontrollable events could not be consequences of depression. Research by Hammen and colleagues focused on dependent events using longitudinal data to analyze the previous histories of experiences to create a vulnerability to depression and negative life experiences. However, the nature of stressful life events possesses many questions about depression.

The article refers to a group of researchers whose purpose was to study different forms of stress that involve interpersonal problems. They believe that high levels of depression in disadvantaged mothers are directly related to their divorce or the death of their spouse. In addition, unemployment stress experienced by mothers or their partners results from subjects' behavior at work and is not an effect of depressive symptoms. The final findings indicated that a complex set of relations between various stressors and depressive symptoms of the subject whereby is due to the defined nature of the stressors.

Title Critique
The title Relation between Depressive Symptoms and Stressful Life Events in a Sample of Disadvantaged Mothers is sufficiently specific in that it refers to the relationship between depressive symptoms and stressful life events in disadvantaged mothers. The title is concise with its purpose. In addition, it is less than fifteen words in length. The variables, depressive symptoms, and the stressful life events named within the title give hints about the study content. There was no need to label types of variables because there was not an excessive amount of variables used for this purpose. The title defines the type of participants and disadvantaged mothers used in the study. There was no mention of any specific use of a theory or theorist. Even though the title is lengthy, it does not reveal any of the results in the title name, and the authors have avoided the use of yes or no questions within the title. The title's relevance to the topic is appropriate as it relates variables in content to the subject. The title has referred to types of variables to examine many specific variables. The method used by researchers justifies the casualty implication of the title.

Critique of Abstract
The Abstract of the article has 128 words hence within the 120-250 American Psychological Association suggested word limit. It implies the research purpose within the abstract which is determining the bidirectional relation between life events and self-reported depression. The abstract certainly mentions highlights of the research methodology, which is to complete a predetermined amount of stress to measure and relate them to depressive symptoms in two phases. An overview of the results was included, but the researchers were careful not to include any titles of measures and gave a general conclusion that types of stress moderate relation between stress and depression. The abstract did not contain any vague research references to consequences.

Critique of Literature Review
The purpose of the literature review is to introduce problem areas, establish their importance, provide an overview of relevant literature, show how the current study advances knowledge in the areas, and describe the researcher’s specific research questions, purposes, or hypotheses, usually stated in the last paragraph of the introduction (Pyrczak, 2008). The researchers identify their purpose of examining the bidirectional nature of SLE-depression relations in 1- a year and the extent to which stress-depression relations varied as a function of specific SLE. The researchers establish that some individuals lose their jobs not because of depressive symptoms but behaviors. The researchers used recorded data to analyze their results and hence did not have to explain any theory.

There were many citations listed in the review literature, however, the flow of the article was from point to point and not from citation to citation. The introduction is informative and appropriate in length hence no need have subsections or subheadings. The article is free from the conceptual definition of key terms because the researcher used globally recognized terms. The researcher has cited many sources for factual statements throughout the introduction and literature. The author also cites previous research data results allowing for easy reader verification. The introduction is effective and appropriate as far as understanding what the author was attempting to relay to the readers. However, it was difficult at times to understand what the author was preparing to compare and contrast with the research data earlier mentioned. There was a gap in the flow, interpretation, and correlation of past and present research data.

Critique of Research Questions
According to Dr. Garzon, a professor at Liberty University, four specific questions one should consider when critiquing a research article are examined and answered based on the provided information. The first question addresses what the researcher is wondering. Based on this article, the researcher is wondering how stress events in life relate to depressive symptoms. Second is if the research hypotheses are clearly stated. Yes, the hypotheses are clearly stated as
We hypothesized that mothers with stressful events in life will have depressive symptoms. The next question is do these (hypotheses) flow clearly from the literature review? Based on the literature provided in the article the hypotheses do flow clearly and are purposeful.  Read More