The roles of domain specific hope and depressive personality in predicting depressive symptoms

The present study extended the research on hope (Snyder, 2002) and depression by assessing the impact of domain specific hope on depressive symptoms using a completely cross-lagged longitudinal design across 2-week and 5-week time intervals while controlling for depressive personality. Results from an undergraduate sample (n = 363) indicated that across a 2-week time interval, hope in the social/peer and academic domains, depressive personality and depressive symptoms had reciprocal causal influences on each other, whereas across a 5-week time interval, only hope in the family domain had a significant one-way influence on depressive symptoms. The implications for working with young adults are discussed and suggestions made for future research relating to the personality-based prediction of depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.