Depression can appear at almost any time during life, and the causes and consequences of depression are broad. Among the many causes of depression, research on the experience of negative events has surfaced, detailing a relationship between the onset of depression, chronic stress, the experience of negative events during the development of the child or adolescent, child temperament and parenting styles. Specifically, the onset of depression has been associated with the occurrence of negative events and a temperament associated with negative withdrawal. Negative or stressful events experienced by an individual member of a family are also experienced by other members of the family. A recent theoretical reform of the family stress model (FSM), called the interactionist model (IM), proposed and integrated the impacts of economic hardship on child development directly through increased risk of physical health problems and mental and indirectly by the stress experienced by the child. parents. In this concise review, IM, the ABC-X model of family stress, and a theory on the development of depression are presented. Empirical findings on the impacts of life events on the onset of depression are then presented and interpreted using IM. The Development of Depression Before Adulthood There is strong evidence that childhood adversities can trigger depression or magnify its effects (Kessler, 1997). But what constitutes childhood adversity, how do these adversities create depression, and why does depression persist? A growing literature suggests that when children are exposed to traumatic or stressful events, how successfully they manage these events depends on their current temperament and their parents' reactions to the events (Mezulis, Hyde, & Abramson, 2006). . More importantly, they learn from their parents how