Dispositional optimism as a predictor of depressive symptoms over time

Although dispositional optimism has often been negatively associated with depressive symptoms, some researchers have found that its predictive power is eliminated after controlling for broader constructs such as neuroticism. However, the majority of such research has relied on cross-sectional data and has not included measures of self-reported stress (i.e. daily hassles). This study of 190 college students investigated the ability of a revised measure of dispositional optimism to predict depressive symptoms over a 10 week period. Participants also completed measures of negative and positive affect, daily hassles, and attributional style. Multiple regression analyses revealed dispositional optimism as a significant predictor of future depressive symptoms even after the effects of time 1 levels of depressive symptoms, negative affect, positive affect, daily hassles, and a hassles x positive affect interaction were controlled.