*WINNER* Stress Resistance As a Potential Mediator for the Effect of Self-Efficacy on Depression

Abstract

Individuals with higher self-efficacy and greater stress resistance have lower depression. (Ehrenberg et al., 1991; Bergeman & Deboeck, 2014). Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief and confidence regarding their abilities to achieve a goal (Bandura, 1977). When subjects consider themselves not capable of doing a task, they are more likely to experience fear and give up (Bandura, 1982). When people see themselves capable of handling a situation, they show better persistence in the face of an obstacle (Bandura, 1997). We hypothesized that increasing people’s self-efficacy would lead to an increase in their stress resistance, which we predicted would mediate a decrease in depression. 150 students participated in the study through Qualtrics. The results were analyzed. Independent samples t-tests indicated that the manipulation increased Social Self-Efficacy by a slightly significant margin (p = 0.04) but did not significantly increase the targeted variable General Self-Efficacy (p = 0.53). The conditions also did not produce differences in Perceived Stress or Depression (p’s > .05). Therefore, we analyzed the data collapsed across condition to test if the predicted correlational associations were found. General Self-Efficacy was negatively correlated with Perceived Stress and Depression, which were positively correlated with each other (p’s < .05). Following the Barron and Kenny (1986) method, we tested for mediation using a linear regression and Sobel test; the results supported Perceived Stress as a mediator of the association between General Self-Efficacy and Depression. Although our manipulation was not successful, the correlational analysis supported further investigation into this model.