Association of early adversity, neuroticism, and depression with perceived severity ratings of stressful life event vignettes

Stress appraisal is implicated in psychological outcomes and may be influenced by environment, personality, and psychopathology, but novel methods are needed to examine how individual differences influence appraisal. Using participant-rated stress appraisals of life event vignettes, we hypothesised an association between researcher-rated and perceived severity, and early adversity, neuroticism, and depression would each be associated with higher average ratings of stress severity and steeper slopes, that is, a more rapidly increasing rate in perceived severity ratings as researcher-rated severity increased, consistent with stress sensitisation. Emerging adults (<i>N</i> = 237) rated 42 researcher-rated vignettes (9,954 total observations). Multilevel growth curve models indicated researcher-rated severity was associated with perceived severity, but early adversity was associated with a <i>flatter</i> slope, consistent with stress inoculation. Neuroticism was associated with greater severity in overall ratings, and depression was associated with both greater severity ratings and altered linear and quadratic growth in separate models; however, in simultaneous models, depression was the only significant unique predictor. Results provide a new approach for examining stress appraisal and indicate that early adversity is associated with reduced stress appraisals, but show past year depression is associated with heightened appraisals. Findings highlight stress appraisal as a potential mechanism of depression maintenance or recurrence.