The Relationship between Distressing Life Events and Positive and Negative Mental Health

During the last decennia, research in the context of distressing life events mainly investigated aspects of negative mental health. In recent years, however, aspects of positive mental health started to receive more and more attention. Accordingly, the current study investigated the relationship between distressing life events and both factors, specifically positive mental health (PMH), satisfaction with life (SWL), subjective happiness (SH) as well as depression, anxiety, and stress. The present sample included N = 426 students who took part in a large online study testing protective and risk factors in the context of mental health, with the present study reporting secondary analyses of these data. Correlational analyses revealed that experiencing a distressing life event, compared to not having experienced such an event, was associated with lower levels of PMH and SWL, and higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, and post-hoc group comparisons supported this pattern. SH, however, was not a correlate in this context. Correlational analyses conducted in only those who had experienced a distressing life event revealed that the higher levels of current distress due to the event, the lower levels of PMH, SWL, and SH, and the higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. In sum, lower levels of positive mental health co-occurred with higher levels of negative mental health following the experience of a distressing life event, suggesting that promoting mental health may be an important preventative target in at-risk groups.