Stressful Life Events and Depression in Adolescents from Low-Income Neighborhoods: An Investigation of the Role of Working Memory Capacity and Distress Intolerance

Lower socio-economic status (SES) is associated with experiencing a greater number of life stressors and increased risk for depression. This study investigated two factors for adaptive coping—working memory capacity (WMC) and distress intolerance (DI)—as moderators of the association between frequency of stressful life events and depressed mood, controlling for age and gender. We hypothesized that lower WMC and greater DI, alone and in interaction with each other, would moderate the association between the frequency of stressful life events and depression.

Our sample included 82 adolescents (M = 14 years) recruited from youth mentorship programs, charter schools, and youth community centers. A majority being female (54.9%) and reported their race and/or ethnicity as Other race/Hispanic (43.9%), and Black/non-Hispanic (30.5%). Participants completed self-report measures of stressful life events, depression, DI, and a behavioral measure of WMC.

Results showed a statistically significant main effect of self-reported DI predicting depression (p < .001), such that higher DI scores were associated with higher levels of depression.

Our findings join broader literature indicating that DI is an important regulatory process that may be a useful mechanistic target to enhance emotional functioning, especially among racially/ethnically diverse adolescents from low SES neighborhoods, a relatively understudied population.