Social Skills Deficits and Subsequent Depressed Mood in Students

Abstract

A total of 65 undergraduate students were administered the Beck Depression Inventory and two measures of social skill: the College Self-Expression Scale and the Means-Ends-Problem-Solving Test. Two months later, depression was reassessed using the D30 Depression Scale. It was found that social skills measures were significantly correlated with currently assessed depression. It was also found that the best single predictor of future depression was current depression (r = .70). A stepwise regression analysis indicated that, after partialling out the influence of current depression scores, two measures of social skill, CSES assertiveness scores and relevancy ratio on the MEPS, provided incrementally significant contributions to the prediction of future depression scores. This provides modest correlational evidence for Lewinsohn's social skills deficit model of depression. That is, social skills, independent of current depression, significantly increased the predictability of future depression.

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