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Are depression and suffering distinct? An empirical analysis
Depression and the subjective experience of suffering are distinct forms of distress, but they are sometimes commingled with one another. Using a cross-sectional sample of flight attendants (n = 4,652), we tested for further empirical evidence distinguishing depression and suffering. Correlations wi...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518749/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36186371 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.970466 |
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author | Cowden, Richard G. Wȩziak-Białowolska, Dorota McNeely, Eileen VanderWeele, Tyler J. |
author_facet | Cowden, Richard G. Wȩziak-Białowolska, Dorota McNeely, Eileen VanderWeele, Tyler J. |
author_sort | Cowden, Richard G. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Depression and the subjective experience of suffering are distinct forms of distress, but they are sometimes commingled with one another. Using a cross-sectional sample of flight attendants (n = 4,652), we tested for further empirical evidence distinguishing depression and suffering. Correlations with 15 indices covering several dimensions of well-being (i.e., physical health, emotional well-being, psychological well-being, character strengths, social well-being, financial/material well-being) indicated that associations with worse well-being were mostly stronger for depression than suffering. There was a large positive correlation between depression and suffering, but we also found evidence of notable non-concurrent depression and suffering in the sample. After dividing participants into four groups that varied based on severity of depression and suffering, regression analyses showed higher levels of well-being among those with both none-mild depression and none-mild suffering compared to those with moderate-severe depression, moderate-severe suffering, or both. All indices of well-being were lowest among the group of participants with moderate-severe depression and moderate-severe suffering. In addition to providing further evidence supporting a distinction between depression and suffering, our findings suggest that concurrent depression and suffering may be more disruptive to well-being than when either is present alone. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9518749 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95187492022-09-29 Are depression and suffering distinct? An empirical analysis Cowden, Richard G. Wȩziak-Białowolska, Dorota McNeely, Eileen VanderWeele, Tyler J. Front Psychol Psychology Depression and the subjective experience of suffering are distinct forms of distress, but they are sometimes commingled with one another. Using a cross-sectional sample of flight attendants (n = 4,652), we tested for further empirical evidence distinguishing depression and suffering. Correlations with 15 indices covering several dimensions of well-being (i.e., physical health, emotional well-being, psychological well-being, character strengths, social well-being, financial/material well-being) indicated that associations with worse well-being were mostly stronger for depression than suffering. There was a large positive correlation between depression and suffering, but we also found evidence of notable non-concurrent depression and suffering in the sample. After dividing participants into four groups that varied based on severity of depression and suffering, regression analyses showed higher levels of well-being among those with both none-mild depression and none-mild suffering compared to those with moderate-severe depression, moderate-severe suffering, or both. All indices of well-being were lowest among the group of participants with moderate-severe depression and moderate-severe suffering. In addition to providing further evidence supporting a distinction between depression and suffering, our findings suggest that concurrent depression and suffering may be more disruptive to well-being than when either is present alone. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9518749/ /pubmed/36186371 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.970466 Text en Copyright © 2022 Cowden, Wȩziak-Białowolska, McNeely and VanderWeele. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Cowden, Richard G. Wȩziak-Białowolska, Dorota McNeely, Eileen VanderWeele, Tyler J. Are depression and suffering distinct? An empirical analysis |
title | Are depression and suffering distinct? An empirical analysis |
title_full | Are depression and suffering distinct? An empirical analysis |
title_fullStr | Are depression and suffering distinct? An empirical analysis |
title_full_unstemmed | Are depression and suffering distinct? An empirical analysis |
title_short | Are depression and suffering distinct? An empirical analysis |
title_sort | are depression and suffering distinct? an empirical analysis |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518749/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36186371 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.970466 |
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