Psychosocial Predictors of Depressive Symptomatology among Young Adults with HPV Infection

Stress and depression are two psychosocial factors associated with decreased immune functioning in persons with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infections. A number of studies have concluded that persons with STIs experience higher levels of stress and depression. This study tested a general health stress (GHS) model and a gynecologic/urologic health stress model's ability to predict depressive symptomatology among young adults with HPV, other STIs, and no STIs. The mediating/moderating effects of partner connectedness and self-esteem on these relationships were also examined. The study sample consisted of 322 Add Health Wave III participants. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for predictive modeling and a post hoc 3x2 factorial ANCOVA was used to examine main and interaction effects of infection and gender on depressive symptomatology. Among respondents with HPV, gender (being female) was a significant predictor of depressive symptomatology. The GHS predictive model explained 19.4% and 12.0% of the variance in depressive symptomatology among the HPV and STI groups, respectively. For respondents with no STIs, self-esteem was the only significant predictor of depressive symptomatology. The gynecologic/urologic health stress model did not predict depressive symptomatology in any group. Results also indicated no significant main effects of infection and gender, nor were there significant interaction effects when variation attributed to self-esteem was partitioned through covariance; however, self-esteem was found to significantly adjust for depressive symptomatology scores. In conclusion, general health stress, partner connectedness, and self-esteem play an important role in the psychological functioning of young adults with HPV and other STIs.