The influence of chronic stress reflected in demographic characteristics on perceived stress and depression––Evidence from hospital employees

Background It is well known that the occurrence of stressful life events increases the incidence of depression; thus, stress has been considered an important trigger for the development of depression. However, recent research has suggested that perceived stress —the extent to which a person feels stressed—is more closely related to depression. In line with this notion, individual differences in perceived stress are expected to be more strongly linked to depression. However, little is known about how these individual differences influence depression. Method This study investigated whether demographic characteristics can alter the relationship between perceived stress and depressive severity by using a sample of hospital employees. Results It was found that perceived stress was positively related to depression ( r  < .67); however, only a causal relationship from demographic characteristics to perceived stress was identified. The results of the best-fitting model (H-model) indicated that self-efficacy tends to decline with aging, whereas distress increases among individuals who are tagged by special characteristics “female” and “having marital experience”. Conclusions These findings indicated that individual differences in perceived stress may be due to chronic stress environments and, in turn, adversely affect depression severity, highlighting the crucial role of perceived stress on the onset of depression.