Perfectionism and Stressful Life Events as Vulnerabilities to Depression Symptoms in Students

Introduction: The mood disorders such as depression are the most common mental disorders among individuals. In addition to, girls’ students as a group at high risk are known for developing this disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of perfectionism and stressful life events in predicting disordered depression symptoms among girls’ students. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study on 344 girl students of Tehran’s high schools, who were selected by multiple cluster sampling, was conducted. Participants responded to the questionnaires of perfectionism of Besharat (2004), stressful life events of Lovibond and Lovibond (1995) and depression symptoms of Costello and Comrey (1967). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression. Results: Results showed that there were significant internal correlations among perfectionism, stressful life events and depression symptoms (p < 0.01). Also, stepwise regression analysis indicated that perfectionism and stressful life events significantly predicted, respectively, 19% and 34% of the variance of depression symptoms (p < 0.01). Conclusion: This study results suggest the importance of perfectionism and stressful life events in predicting depression symptoms and these factors can explain the high degree of variability of these symptoms.