Psychological wellbeing and the diathesis-stress hypothesis model: The role of psychological functioning and quality of relations in promoting subjective well-being in a life events study

Negative life events are associated with poor wellbeing and mental health outcomes. Following a diathesis-stress model, we tested whether psychological functioning and quality of interpersonal relationships moderated the effect of life events on subjective wellbeing. This study comprised data from a young and middle-aged adult sample (n = 364) drawn from an Australian university-student population. Results indicated that life events were associated with negative but not positive wellbeing outcomes. Perceived impact of life events was a stronger predictor of wellbeing than was the number of life events. Psychological functioning and quality of interpersonal relationships were associated with both wellbeing dimensions but only quality of interpersonal relationships moderated the effect of life events on wellbeing. In conclusion, perceived impact of life events was more strongly related to wellbeing than number of life events. Interpersonal relationships moderate the effect of life events with those reporting higher levels of quality of interpersonal relationships reporting less decrement in negative affect following stressful life events.

► Number of life events is only weakly associated with wellbeing.
► The perceived impact of stressful life events is strongly related to wellbeing.
► Psychological functioning and quality of social relations are strongly related to wellbeing.
► Quality of social relations moderates the effect of life events on wellbeing.