Personality correlates of depression and health symptoms: A test of a self-regulation model

Previous research has implicated personality traits in the experience of both physical and psychological symptoms among college students. The current study assessed the extent to which various personality factors (e.g, perfectionism, procrastination, self-efficacy expectancies) ate correlated with depressive symptom and psychosomatic symptom self-report in a college sample, In addition, the present research also tested predictions from self-regulation models that would suggest that personality factors may interact to account for unique variance in depression and health symptoms. A total of 179 students (77 men, 102 women) completed measures of perfectionism, self-efficacy, procrastination, health symptoms, and depression. Correlational analyses revealed that depression scores were related to socially prescribed perfectionism, self-efficacy dimensions, and procrastination. Physical symptom report was associated with personal and social dimensions of perfectionism, low self-efficacy, and depression. Regression results indicated that self-efficacy and socially prescribed perfectionism interacted to predict unique variance in depression and physical symptom report. The results provided partial support for the application of a self-regulation model to the study of psychological distress and somatic problems in college students. Results are discussed in terms of their practical and theoretical implications. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.