The moderating role of catastrophizing in day-to-day dynamic stress and depressive symptoms

The way individuals handle daily stressors can significantly influence their mental health. Those who struggle with emotion regulation are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of stress. This study explored the role of catastrophizing, a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy, in shaping the relationships between daily stress responses and depressive symptoms. A total of 75 healthy college students participated in the study. We adopted an Ecological Momentary Assessment protocol over 14 consecutive days to capture the day-to-day dynamics of stress reactivity and recovery. Our findings indicate that individuals with higher levels of catastrophizing exhibited increased daily stress reactivity and delayed daily stress recovery, consequently raising their likelihood of experiencing amplified depressive symptoms. In contrast, those with lower levels of catastrophizing did not experience the same negative effects of increased daily stress reactivity on their mental health. These results enhance understanding of how real-life stressors contribute to the development of mental health issues and underscore the importance of adaptive emotion regulation for improved overall health and well-being.

The relationship between loneliness and the experiences of everyday stress and stressor-related emotion

Loneliness influences how people experience and respond to stressors, which may account for its role as a risk factor for morbidity and mortality. The present study was motivated by emerging evidence that affective responses to minor daily events have long-term implications for health and well-being. Specifically, we evaluated how individual differences in loneliness relate to the frequency of everyday stressors and stressor-related negative emotions. A diverse community sample of 255 adults (age 25-65 years) completed ecological momentary assessments (EMA), during which they reported recent stressors and current negative affect (NA) five times a day for 14 days. Multilevel logistic analyses indicated that there was a quadratic association between loneliness and likelihood of reporting stressors, controlling for demographics, social isolation, depressive symptoms, and context (current activities, current location). Multilevel regression indicated that loneliness was unrelated to the concurrent effect of stressors on NA but significantly larger lagged stressor effects were observed among individuals in the low and high ranges of loneliness. These findings suggest that individuals with high levels of loneliness are more likely to experience everyday stressors and have prolonged emotional responses following stressors.

Daily Stress, Drinking Motives and Alcohol Co-Use with Other Drugs

Background: Recent evidence indicates that alcohol and other substance co-use, compared to alcohol-only use, might be more closely associated with negative reinforcement processes, and thus more likely during periods of increased stress. The present study examined this possibility by using data from an intensive longitudinal (daily) study of college student drinkers (N = 1461, 54% women). We also examined individual differences in coping and enhancement drinking motives as predictors of alcohol and other substance co-use. Results: We used multilevel multinomial logistic regression to predict, relative to alcohol-only days, the likelihood of alcohol co-use with either cigarettes or marijuana, along with alcohol use with multiple substances and other substance-only use from daily interpersonal and academic stress, day-of-the-week, sex, and individual differences in coping and enhancement drinking motives. We found that, relative to alcohol-only, alcohol and marijuana co-use was more likely, and non-alcohol related substance use was less likely, on weekends. Alcohol and marijuana co-use was less likely, and other substance-only use was more likely, on days characterized by greater academic stress, whereas alcohol and cigarette co-use was more likely on days characterized by greater interpersonal stress. Individuals with higher levels of drinking to cope motivation were more likely to engage in alcohol and cigarette co-use, other substance-only use, and alcohol plus multiple substances, relative to alcohol-only. Individuals with higher levels of enhancement motives were more likely to engage in all types of alcohol and other substance co-use and other substance-only use relative to alcohol-only. Conclusions: Findings are discussed in terms of the complex nature of different patterns of co-use patterns when evaluating indicators of positive- and negative-reinforcement processes.

Cultural Differences in the Perception of Daily Stress Between European Canadian and Japanese Undergraduate Students

The current research examines cross-cultural differences in people's daily stress experiences and the role of social orientations in explaining their experiences. Using a situation sampling method, Study 1 collected European Canadian and Japanese undergraduates' examples of stressful interpersonal and non-interpersonal situations they experienced, measuring participants' perception of the intensity and frequency of each type of situation. Studies 2 and 3 examined the effects of culture on participants' reports of stress symptoms under the situations. Study 3 assessed the mediating effects of independence and interdependence between culture and perceived stress. These studies indicated that the situational context moderates the effect of culture on perceptions of stress, showing a different amount of stress from interpersonal situations between Japanese and European Canadian undergraduates. Mediational analyses revealed that independent orientation partially explains the relationship between culture and stress from interpersonal situations. The implications of these results for culture and daily stress are discussed.

Mild daily stress, in interaction with NR3C1 DNA methylation levels, is linked to alterations in the HPA axis and ANS response to acute stress in early adolescents

BACKGROUND

Daily Hassles (DH) or daily stress - is a mild type of stressor with unique contributions to psychological distress. Yet, most prior studies that investigate the effects of stressful life experiences focus on childhood trauma or on early life stress and little is known about the effects of DH on epigenetic changes in stress system related genes and on the physiological response to social stressors.

METHODS

In the present study, conducted among 101 early adolescents (mean age = 11.61; SD = 0.64), we investigated whether Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) (namely heart rate and heart rate variability) and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis functioning (measured as cortisol stress reactivity and recovery) are associated with DNA methylation (DNAm) in the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1), the level of DH and their interaction. To assess the stress system functioning the TSST protocol was used.

RESULTS

Our findings show that higher NR3C1 DNAm in interaction with higher levels of daily hassles, is associated with blunted HPA axis reactivity to psychosocial stress. In addition, higher levels of DH are associated with extended HPA axis stress recovery. In addition, participants with higher NR3C1 DNAm had lower ANS adaptability to stress, specifically lower parasympathetic withdrawal; for heart rate variability this effect was strongest for participants with higher level of DH.

CONCLUSIONS

The observation that interaction effects between NR3C1 DNAm levels and daily stress on the functioning of the stress-systems, are already detectable in young adolescents, highlights the importance of early interventions, not only in the case of trauma, but also daily stress. This might help to prevent stress-induced mental and physical disorders later in life.

Perceived emotion invalidation predicts daily affect and stressors

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Perceived emotion invalidation is linked to the development or worsening of a variety of emotional and physical health conditions. However, prior studies are largely cross-sectional and whether there are day-to-day effects of generally feeling invalidated is unknown.

DESIGN

We examined the relations between perceived emotion invalidation and momentary affect, average daily affect, and the experience of daily stressors among a sample of young adults using ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

METHODS

Participants (n = 86) completed measures of perceived emotion invalidation and emotional reactivity at baseline then completed one week of EMA including: (1) 7x/day reports of current affect and social context and (2) 1x/day index of experienced stressors and their intensity.

RESULTS

Higher perceived emotion invalidation predicted lower momentary positive affect. Perceived invalidation also interacted with social context such that higher emotion invalidation predicted greater negative affect when participants were with non-close others (i.e., co-workers, acquaintances). Only participants with high perceived emotional invalidation experienced increased stress alongside heightened daily negative affect.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide preliminary evidence that feeling emotionally invalidated may predict affective experiences, including how emotions are momentarily experienced and how life stressors are interpreted when they are later reflected on.

Longitudinal change in daily stress across 20 years of adulthood: Results from the national study of daily experiences

This study examined age-related patterns in exposure and affective reactivity to daily stressors across a 20-year time span among adults who were between 22 and 77 years old at their baseline interview. Longitudinal data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE) consisted of three bursts of eight consecutive nightly interviews of stress and affect. Analyses made use of all available data from a U.S. National sample of respondents who participated in any of the three NSDE bursts (N = 2,845; number of daily assessments = 33,688). Findings revealed increasing age-related benefits. Younger adults (< 30 years) reported the highest levels of stressor exposure and reactivity, but their stress profile improved with age. Over time, adults averaged an 11% reduction in the occurrence of stressor days, and the younger adults exhibited an even steeper decline (a 47% reduction) in their levels of stressor reactivity. For people in midlife and old age, stressor occurrence continued to decrease over time, yet among adults aged 54 years or older at baseline, stress reactivity remained stable across time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Neural correlates of conflict adaptation predict daily stress reactivity

Chronic exposure to daily stress can be harmful to mental health especially when individuals lack adaptive adjustment mechanisms. The present study aimed to investigate how the adaptive capacities in cognition and emotion as well as their neural signatures could moderate the stress reactivity in daily life. Seventy-five healthy participants aged 18-24 years participated in this study. We recorded brain activity using electroencephalography while participants were performing a conflict task and an emotion regulation task in the laboratory. Using the experience sampling method, participants were subsequently instructed to report their daily stress and daily affect on 14 consecutive days. Our results revealed that a larger adaptation effect in reaction times of the conflict task predicted a stronger negative affect in response to the stress of the same day. The adaptation effect in the N2 and P3 components elicited by the conflict task predicted a weaker influence of today's stress level on the next day's stress level, pointing to a better stress adaptation. However, emotion regulation capacities did not predict daily stress reactivity. Our data indicate that conflict adaption predicts two aspects of stress reactivity in daily life: how stress influences the negative affect that day, and how stress that day is related to stress the next day. These findings point to new avenues for early screening of stress-vulnerable populations, with implications for the prevention and intervention of stress-related mental disorders.

A multilevel analysis of the links between daily emotional labor, daily spiritual experiences, and daily stress during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic both necessitate and obstruct emotional regulation and coping mechanisms. Despite growing interest in the connection between stress and spirituality, multilevel studies addressing day-level variance to understand how spiritual experiences and emotional regulation are linked with stress during this unique situation are scarce. This study aims to analyze how daily spiritual experiences (DSE) and daily emotional labor (EL) connect with the daily stress levels of employees during the pandemic.

DESIGN AND METHOD

Data collected from 132 employees for five consecutive workdays (660 d-level, 132 person-level responses) were analyzed via Hierarchical Linear Modeling.

RESULTS

Multilevel analysis provided evidence for the negative association between DSE and daily stress. The "faking emotions" and "hiding emotions" dimensions of daily EL were positively and significantly related to daily stress, while the "deep acting" dimension demonstrated no significant relationship. There was no evidence for the moderator role of DSE in the relationship between daily EL and stress.

CONCLUSION

The form of daily EL is crucial to understanding how it associates with daily stress. Although its buffering role on the adverse effects of EL is not significant, DSE directly relates to lower stress levels.

One more step in the study of children's daily stress: The spillover effect as the transfer of tension in family and school environments

Introduction

The spillover effect is the psychological overflow due to daily stress in one context and the transfer of its consequences to another close environment. The aim is to explore the spillover effect in conflicts within the family, on the one hand, and school with peers on the other hand, as an inferred measure of daily stress according to the literature.

Method

The study consisted of a sample of 208 6-year-old students and their families. A methodology based on daily report records was used, by means of two ad hoc checklists with simultaneous measurements, for 2 consecutive weeks and 3 academic years, for both family and school contexts. A repeated measures design, together with a nonparametric statistical data analysis with Friedman's test and contrast measures, was used.

Results

Daily stress shows significant differences in the family setting throughout the week (χ ² = 32.44; p = 0.000) and at different times of the day (χ ² = 29.65; p = 0.000). In the school setting, differences were found across the different days of the week (χ ² = 36.96; p = 0.000). Spillover effect has been discovered between conflicts at home in the evening and conflicts at school. At the same time, conflicts at school are related to conflicts at home from Wednesday onward.

Discussion

The results suggest further research on daily stress through the interrelation of the different contexts, as well as the impact that moments of conflict may have on the psychological and emotional development of the child.

Persistence of Anxiety/Depression Symptoms in Early Adolescence: A Prospective Study of Daily Life Stress, Rumination, and Daytime Sleepiness in a Genetically Informative Cohort

In this prospective study of mental health, we examine the influence of three interrelated traits - perceived stress, rumination, and daytime sleepiness - and their association with symptoms of anxiety and depression in early adolescence. Given the known associations between these traits, an important objective is to determine the extent to which they may independently predict anxiety/depression symptoms. Twin pairs from the Queensland Twin Adolescent Brain (QTAB) project were assessed on two occasions (N = 211 pairs aged 9-14 years at baseline and 152 pairs aged 10-16 years at follow-up). Linear regression models and quantitative genetic modeling were used to analyze the data. Prospectively, perceived stress, rumination, and daytime sleepiness accounted for 8-11% of the variation in later anxiety/depression; familial influences contributed strongly to these associations. However, only perceived stress significantly predicted change in anxiety/depression, accounting for 3% of variance at follow-up after adjusting for anxiety/depression at baseline, although it did not do so independently of rumination and daytime sleepiness. Bidirectional effects were found between all traits over time. These findings suggest an underlying architecture that is shared, to some degree, by all traits, while the literature points to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and/or circadian systems as potential sources of overlapping influence and possible avenues for intervention.

Advancing the Study of Resilience to Daily Stressors

Historically, studies of childhood and adult resilience have typically focused on adaptation to chronic life adversities, such as poverty and maltreatment, or isolated and potentially traumatic events, such as bereavement and serious illness. Here, we present a complementary view and suggest that stressors experienced in daily life may also forecast individual health and well-being. We argue that daily process approaches that incorporate intensive sampling of individuals in natural settings can provide powerful insights into unfolding adaptational processes. In making this argument, we review studies that link intraindividual dynamics with diverse health-related phenomena. Findings from this research provide support for a multiple-levels-analysis perspective that embraces greater unity in pivotal resilience constructs invoked across childhood and adult literatures. Drawing on insights and principles derived from life-span theory, we conclude by outlining promising directions for future work and considering their broader implications for the field of resilience.

Effects of a workplace intervention on daily stressor reactivity

Heightened affective and physical reactions to daily stressful events predict poor long-term physical and mental health outcomes. It is unknown, however, if an experimental manipulation designed to increase interpersonal resources at work can reduce associations between daily stressors and physical and affective well-being. The present study tests the effects of a workplace intervention designed to increase supervisor support for family and personal life and schedule control on employees' affective and physical reactivity to daily stressors in different domains (i.e., work, home, interpersonal, and noninterpersonal stressors). Participants were 102 employed parents with adolescent children from an information technology (IT) division of a large U.S. firm who participated in the Work, Family, and Heath Study. Participants provided 8-day daily diary data at baseline and again at a 12-month follow-up after the implementation of a workplace intervention. Multilevel models revealed that the intervention significantly reduced employees' negative affect reactivity to work stressors and noninterpersonal stressors, compared to the usual practice condition. Negative reactivity did not decrease for nonwork or interpersonal stressors. The intervention also did not significantly reduce positive affect reactivity or physical symptom reactivity to any stressor type. Results demonstrate that making positive changes in work environments, including increasing supervisor support and flexible scheduling, may promote employee health and well-being through better affective responses to common daily stressors at work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Daily associations among aging perceptions, perceived health, and perceived stress in older adults

OBJECTIVES

Daily perceived stress is a key indicator of well-being across adulthood, but particularly for those experiencing age-linked challenges. Understanding how day-level factors most salient to the aging process are associated with daily stress levels can further elucidate the mechanisms involved. Here, we investigate two such age-salient factors-daily perceived health and day-level aging perceptions-on daily perceived stress in later life, with a particular interest in the potential role of aging perceptions as an emotion-focused coping resource.

METHOD

127 older adults (mean age 79) completed daily surveys reporting aging perceptions, perceived health, and perceived stress for 14 days, along with a global questionnaire. Multilevel models assessed the between-person and within-person influences of both daily aging perceptions and daily perceived health on day-level perceived stress.

RESULTS

Key findings: (a) days of worse perceived health are also days of higher perceived stress; (b) days of more negative aging perceptions are days of higher perceived stress; (c) these individual effects maintain significance when the other is controlled, and (d) these effects interact, so that perceived health is more strongly associated with perceived stress on days when aging perceptions are below a person's mean.

CONCLUSION

The moderating effect identifies aging perceptions as a potentially important resource for emotion-focused coping in later life, particularly for older adults experiencing stress associated with poorer perceived health.

Daily Stress and Behavioral Problems in Chinese Children: The Moderating Roles of Family Functioning and the Classroom Environment

Grounded in the stress-coping model, our study examined family functioning and the classroom environment as protective factors in the relationship between daily stress and behavioral problems in Chinese children. The participants were 1,450 children (51.7% male, M age = 10.91 years, SD = 0.96) in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades at five schools. The children completed the questionnaires measuring daily stress, family functioning, and the classroom environment. Additionally, their parents rated their behavioral problems. The latent moderated structural (LMS) equation approach was used to test moderator effects. After controlling for sex and grade, our results indicate that daily stress positively predicted the children's behavioral problems. Both family functioning and the classroom environment moderated the relationship between daily stress and behavioral problems. Further assessment of latent interaction effects indicate that buffering effects on behavioral problems were most prominent in conditions involving low stress. In sum, families and schools should not ignore children's minor stressors, as interventions involving family functioning and favorable classroom environments may help to reduce behavioral problems in children who report low levels of daily stress.

COVID-19-Related Daily Stress Processes in College-Aged Adults: Examining the Role of Depressive Symptom Severity

Exposure to daily stressors specific to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., threat of infection) is associated with emotional distress, heightened stress reactivity, and increased depressive symptomology. Herein, we examined whether current depressive symptomology modulates the association between COVID-19-related daily stressor exposure and negative affective reactivity in young, otherwise healthy, college-aged adults. Fifty-eight adults (21 men; 22±3years) completed a daily web-based interview for eight consecutive days to assess COVID-19-related daily stress exposure and emotional responsiveness (September–November 2020). Depressive symptom severity was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and a score of ≥10 (range: 0–27) was used to define adults with a depressive episode (n=20). Participants reported at least one COVID-19-related stressor on 35.8% of interview days. Depressive symptomology did not predict the likelihood of exposure to a COVID-19-related stressor (p=0.46; OR=1.52; 95% CI: 0.492–4.718). However, negative affect (NA) was greater on days with an exposure to any COVID-19-specific daily stressor in adults with moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms (b=0.28, SE=0.093, p=0.003) but not in those without (b=0.009, SE=0.074, p=0.90), such that negative affective reactivity to COVID-19-related stressors was amplified in adults with a current depressive episode (p=0.019). Depressive symptomology did not moderate positive affective reactivity (p=0.686). Taken together, these data suggest that exposure to daily stressors related to COVID-19 further worsens NA in adults with a current depressive episode, potentially rendering them more susceptible to adverse mental health outcomes during the pandemic.

Negative Emotion Differentiation Attenuates the Within-Person Indirect Effect of Daily Stress on Nightly Sleep Quality Through Calmness

The ability to differentiate between negative emotional states [negative emotion differentiation (NED)] has been conceptualized as a trait that facilitates effective emotion regulation and buffers stress reactivity. In the present research, we investigated the role of NED in within-person processes of daily affect regulation and coping during times of stress (the first COVID-19-related pandemic lockdown in April 2020). Using intensive longitudinal data, we analyzed whether daily stress had an indirect effect on sleep quality through calmness in the evening, and we tested whether NED moderated this within-person indirect effect by buffering the link between daily stress and calmness in the evening. A non-representative community sample (n = 313, 15–82 years old) participated in a 21-day ambulatory assessment with twice-daily surveys. The results of multilevel mediation models showed that higher daily stress was related to within-day change in calmness from morning to evening, resulting in less calmness in the evening within persons. Less calmness in the evening, in turn, was related to poorer nightly sleep quality within persons. As expected, higher NED predicted a less negative within-person link between daily stress and calmness in the evening, thereby attenuating the indirect effect of daily stress on nightly sleep quality through calmness. This effect held when we controlled for mean negative emotions and depression. The results provide support for a diathesis-stress model of NED, and hence, for NED as a protective factor that helps to explain why some individuals remain more resilient during times of stress than others.

Impulsivity, Affect, and Stress in Daily Life: Examining a Cascade Model of Urgency

Using multilevel structural equation modeling, the authors examined within- and between-person predictors of daily impulsivity, with a particular focus on testing a cascade model of affect and daily stress in a 100-day daily diary study of 101 psychiatric patients with personality disorder diagnoses. On average (i.e., fixed effect), within-person increases in daily stress were associated with increased daily impulsivity, both independently and as accounted for by positive associations with increased negative and positive affect. Higher Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) Impulsivity scores were associated with amplified within-person links between impulsivity and daily stress and negative affect, but not the links between daily stress and either positive or negative affect. The results of this cascade model are consistent with the hypothesized links between daily affect and stress and daily impulsivity while providing further evidence for the validity of the PID-5 Impulsivity scale and its ability to predict daily impulsivity above and beyond fluctuations in affect and stress.

Personality Traits Predict Long-Term Physical Health via Affect Reactivity to Daily Stressors

Researchers hypothesize that how people react to daily stressful events partly explains the relationship between personality and health, yet no study has examined longitudinal associations between these factors. The current study focused on the role of negative affect reactivity to daily stressful events as a mediating pathway between personality and physical health outcomes using three waves of data spanning 20 years from a nationwide probability sample of 1,176 adults. Results indicated that negative affect reactivity partially mediated personality and physical health. Wave 1 neuroticism was associated with greater negative affect reactivity at Wave 2, which predicted the development of chronic conditions and functional limitations at Wave 3. Higher conscientiousness at Wave 1 was associated with less negative affect reactivity at Wave 2, which predicted better physical health at Wave 3. These findings highlight the usefulness of using a daily-stress framework for understanding how personality impacts health over time, which has important implications for stress management and disease prevention.

The long shadow of childhood trauma for depression in midlife: examining daily psychological stress processes as a persistent risk pathway

BACKGROUND

Childhood trauma (CT) increases the risk of adult depression. Buffering effects require an understanding of the underlying persistent risk pathways. This study examined whether daily psychological stress processes - how an individual interprets and affectively responds to minor everyday events - mediate the effect of CT on adult depressive symptoms.

METHODS

Middle-aged women (N = 183) reported CT at baseline and completed daily diaries of threat appraisals and negative evening affect for 7 days at baseline, 9, and 18 months. Depressive symptoms were measured across the 1.5-year period. Mediation was examined using multilevel structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

Reported CT predicted greater depressive symptoms over the 1.5-year time period (estimate = 0.27, s.e. = 0.07, 95% CI 0.15-0.38, p < 0.001). Daily threat appraisals and negative affect mediated the effect of reported CT on depressive symptoms (estimate = 0.34, s.e. = 0.08, 95% CI 0.22-0.46, p < 0.001). Daily threat appraisals explained more than half of this effect (estimate = 0.19, s.e. = 0.07, 95% CI 0.08-0.30, p = 0.004). Post hoc analyses in individuals who reported at least moderate severity of CT showed that lower threat appraisals buffered depressive symptoms. A similar pattern was found in individuals who reported no/low severity of CT.

CONCLUSIONS

A reported history of CT acts as a latent vulnerability, exaggerating threat appraisals of everyday events, which trigger greater negative evening affect - processes that have important mental health consequences and may provide malleable intervention targets.

Daily Stress and Affect Across Adulthood: The Role of Social Interactions via Different Communication Modes

Communication with one's social network can take place in-person or using technology. Past studies have mainly focused on the effects of communication modality (in-person, telephone calling, text messaging, and internet) on stress and affect at a between-person level by exploring the individual differences. Yet few studies have compared such effects at a within-person level, that is, how an individual varies over time. We conducted a diary study over seven days for 145 participants (ages 22 to 94) mostly from the greater Boston area to test the role each communication mode played in daily stress exposure, stress reactivity, and positive and negative affect using within-person analyses. Multilevel modeling results revealed that days with more frequent text messaging were associated with greater stress exposure and negative affect. Days with more in-person communication were associated with more positive affect. Days with more telephone calls were associated with less negative affect. Internet communication was not associated with stress or affect at a within-person level. To address the directionality of our findings, we also conducted lagged analyses that suggested higher previous day frequency of text messaging was related to higher stress exposure on the subsequent day. In addition, higher previous stress exposure was related to less telephone calling on the subsequent day. Implications and future research are discussed with a focus on how social interactions via different communication modes with one's social network can make a difference for daily well-being.

Gender and stress-buffering of social capital toward depression among precarious workers in South Korea

BACKGROUND

Precarious work is featured with disadvantaged job conditions such as to employment contract, job description, and occupational environment, and has been recognized as an emerging social risk for mental health. Social capital deserves further attention, believed to buffer stress produced by precarious employment. Yet, recent evidence suggests that the mental health benefits of social capital vary by gender, as gender norms that oblige women to assume a caregiving burden may nullify the benefits of a richer social capital.

OBJECTIVE

Our study focused on two types of social capital, bonding and bridging, testing their stress-buffering effects, as focusing on the posited gender-moderated effects of social capital.

METHODS

We analyzed 333 precarious workers in South Korea. Chi-square tests and t-tests are used to compare socio-demographic factors, depressive symptoms, and daily stressors by gender. Multiple regression analyses were used to test significance of an interaction term between daily stress and sub-domains of social capital by gender.

RESULTS

Male workers with higher bonding and higher bridging social capital reported lower depressive symptoms. Yet, female workers gained no direct benefit from higher bonding social capital and those with higher bridging social capital reported even higher depressive symptoms when their daily stress was lower.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings support the notion that social capital is not universally beneficial and female precarious workers lacking resources seem to suffer despite increased social participation.

Charting adult development through (historically changing) daily stress processes

This article views adult development through the lens of daily life experiences and recent historical changes in these experiences. In particular, it examines whether theories that postulate general linear increases in well-being throughout adulthood still hold during times of less prosperity and more uncertainty. Descriptive analyses of the National Study of Daily Experiences chart show how stress in the daily lives of Americans may have changed from the 1990s (N = 1,499) to the 2010s (N = 782). Results revealed that adults in the 2010s reported experiencing stressors on 2% more days than in the 1990s, which translates to an additional week of stressors across a year. Participants in the 2010s also reported that stressors were more severe and posed more risks to future plans and finances and that they experienced more distress. These historical changes were particularly pronounced among middle-aged adults (e.g., proportion of stressor days increased by 19%, and perceived risks to finances and to future plans rose by 61% and 52%, respectively). As a consequence, age-related linear increases in well-being observed from young adulthood to midlife in the 1990s were no longer observed in the 2010s. If further studies continue to replicate our findings, traditional theories of adult well-being that were developed and empirically tested during times of relative economic prosperity may need to be reevaluated in light of the changes in middle adulthood currently observed in this historic period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Greater Daily Psychosocial Stress Exposure is Associated With Increased Norepinephrine-Induced Vasoconstriction in Young Adults

Background Epidemiological data suggest a link between psychological stress and increased cardiovascular disease risk; however, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. The purpose of this investigation was to directly examine the influence of daily psychosocial stress on microvascular adrenergic vasoconstrictor responsiveness in healthy adults. We hypothesized increased daily psychosocial stress would be positively related to increased norepinephrine-induced vasoconstriction. Methods and Results Eighteen healthy adults (19-36 years; 10 women) completed a daily psychosocial experiences telephone interview for 8 consecutive evenings in order to document their exposure and emotional responsiveness to common stressors (eg, arguments, work stress) over the preceding 24 hrs. On the last interview day, red cell flux (laser Doppler flowmetry) was measured during graded intradermal microdialysis perfusion of norepinephrine (10^-12 to 10^-2 mol/L) and expressed as a percentage of baseline vascular conductance. Exogenous norepinephrine elicited progressive and robust vasoconstriction in all individuals (maximal vasoconstriction: 71±4%_base; cumulative vasoconstriction [area under the curve]: 118±102 arbitrary units). Participants experienced a stressor on 51±5% of days and a total of 5.2±0.9 stressors over the 8-day time frame. Increased daily frequency of stressor exposure was positively related to both maximal (R²=0.26; P=0.03) and cumulative (R²=0.31; P=0.02) vasoconstrictor responsiveness. Likewise, the total number of stressors was associated with increased maximal (R²=0.40; P<0.01) and cumulative (R²=0.27; P=0.03) norepinephrine-induced vasoconstriction. Neither stressor severity nor stress-related emotions were related to vasoconstrictor responsiveness. Conclusions Collectively, these data suggest that daily psychosocial stressor exposure by itself is sufficient to adversely influence microvascular vasoconstrictor function, regardless of the perceived severity or emotional consequences of the stressor exposure.

Relationship Between Daily Stress, Depression Symptoms, and Facebook Addiction Disorder in Germany and in the United States

This study investigated the link between experience of daily stress, depression symptoms, and the Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) in Germany and in the United States. In samples from both countries (German sample: N = 531; U.S. sample: N = 909), daily stress was positively associated with FAD. Depression symptoms significantly positively moderated this positive relationship. Thus, current findings demonstrate that depressed individuals who often tend to intensively use Facebook to escape from daily stress and to find relief and social support are at enhanced risk to develop FAD, which reinforces their negative symptoms. Therefore, interventions for depressed individuals should include alternative strategies to cope with daily stressors.

Daily Stress Processes as Contributors to and Targets for Promoting Cognitive Health in Later Life

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that daily stress processes, including exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors, are associated with response time inconsistency (RTI), an indicator of processing efficiency and cognitive health. Furthermore, we considered daily stress-cognitive health associations at the level of individual differences and within-persons over time.

METHODS

Participants were 111 older adults (mean = 80 years, range = 66-95 years) enrolled in a measurement burst study where assessments of response time-based cognitive performance, stressful experiences, and affect were administered on each of 6 days for a 2-week period. This protocol was repeated every 6 months for 2.5 years. Multilevel modeling was used to examine frequency of stressor exposure, nonstressor affect, and affect reactivity to daily stressors as individual difference and time-varying predictors of RTI.

RESULTS

Between-persons, higher levels of nonstressor negative affect (b = 0.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.01 to 0.83, p = .055) and negative affect reactivity (b = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.18 to 1.42, p = .012) were associated with greater RTI. Within-persons over time, higher levels of negative affect (b = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.06 to 0.34, p = .006) and negative affect reactivity (b = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.24, p = .018) were associated with increased RTI among the oldest portion of the sample, whereas higher levels of positive affect (b = -0.11, 95% CI = -0.21 to -0.02, p = .019) were associated with reduced RTI.

CONCLUSIONS

Negative affect reactions to daily stressors are associated with compromised RTI both between and within-persons. Findings suggest that emotional reactions to daily stressors contribute to compromise older adults' cognitive health, whereas increased positive affect may be beneficial.

Self-Efficacy as a Mechanism Linking Daily Stress to Mental Health in Students: A Three-Wave Cross-Lagged Study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

While stress is generally well established to be predictive for different indicators of mental health, little is known about the longitudinal effects of daily life stressors and the role of self-evaluation factors. We tested whether perceived general self-efficacy is a mediator for the association between daily life stressors and psychopathological symptoms as well as subjective well-being.

METHODS

Data derived from 2160 Chinese university students was assessed at three time points with one-year intervals. We used the Brief Daily Stressor Screening, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Positive Mental Health Scale, and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales. Total, direct, and indirect effects were estimated using 95% bootstrapped confidence intervals and structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

Latent variable mediation analyses showed that daily stressors were associated with increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress and with decreased subjective well-being. All cross-lagged mediational paths via self-efficacy were significant in predicting positive and negative mental health.

CONCLUSIONS

Considering stress of daily life as well as including the two dimensions of mental health may be important for future research and practice. This study provides novel evidence for mediating stress effects by perceived self-efficacy, which should be focused in intervention- and prevention-based approaches.

Sense of Purpose Moderates the Associations Between Daily Stressors and Daily Well-being

Background

Having a sense of purpose in life has been consistently demonstrated as a predictor of positive health outcomes, including less perceived stress, yet, little is known about the role of sense of purpose on stressful days.

Purpose

The current study investigated the sense of purpose as a moderator of stressor-related changes in daily physical symptoms, positive affect, and negative affect.

Methods

A subset of the Midlife in the United States study (n = 1949, mage: 56.4 years) reported their sense of purpose, along with up to eight daily assessments of stressors, affect, and physical symptoms. Multilevel models evaluated whether sense of purpose was associated with deviations in affect or physical symptom reporting on days when participants reported a stressor versus days when stressors did not occur.

Results

Sense of purpose was associated with higher daily positive affect, lower daily negative affect, and fewer daily physical symptoms. Compared with individuals who reported lower levels of purpose, those reporting higher levels encountered the same number of daily stressors, yet showed less of an increase in negative affect and physical symptoms on stressor days than on stressor-free days. Purpose did not predict changes in positive affect in response to daily stressors.

Conclusions

Findings provide evidence that a purposeful life may be characterized by lower negative affect and physical symptom reporting on stressful days.

Relationship Tensions and Mood: Adult Children's Daily Experience of Aging Parents' Stubbornness

This study examined middle-aged individuals' reports of parents' behaviors commonly attributed to stubbornness. Middle-aged adults (N = 192) completed a 7-day diary reporting their mood and how often they felt their parents (N = 254) engaged in behaviors often described as 'stubbornness' (insistent or risky). Thirty-one percent of middle-aged children reported insistent behaviors and 17% reported risky behaviors by their parent(s). Daily reports of parent behaviors attributed to stubbornness were positively associated with parent-child relationship quality, parent functional limitations, and child neuroticism. Reports of perceived parent insistent behaviors were also associated with greater daily negative mood among adult children. Findings highlight the impact of adult children's daily perceptions of parent behaviors commonly attributed to stubbornness on the individual and relationship.

Discrimination, daily stress, sleep, and Mexican-origin adolescents' internalizing symptoms

OBJECTIVE

Using diary and longitudinal data, the current study examined the relations between Mexican-origin youths' ethnic discrimination, daily sleep and stress processes, and internalizing symptoms.

METHOD

Adolescents (N = 113; 49.6% female, Mage = 15.73 years) participated in an initial in-home interview and reported on ethnic discrimination and internalizing symptoms. They then completed a 3-day diary study and reported on their daily stress and sleep behaviors (i.e., sleep quality, sleep duration). Adolescents' internalizing symptoms were reassessed 2 years after the initial assessment.

RESULTS

Discrimination related to greater daily stress and lower sleep quality. Daily stress was, in turn, marginally related to concurrent internalizing symptoms, but not longitudinal changes in symptoms. Sleep duration was unrelated to discrimination experiences and concurrent and long-term internalizing symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Discrimination disrupts daily processes that include overall stress levels and sleep quality. Daily stress processes may help explain the link between discrimination and Mexican-origin adolescents' concurrent internalizing symptoms. Research examining daily processes provides insight into psychological and behavioral implications of discrimination experiences of adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record

Fasciatherapy and Reflexology compared to Hypnosis and Music Therapy in Daily Stress Management

BACKGROUND

Patients suffering from stress symptoms due to every-day life who are looking for a non-pharmacological response to their relief expectation are many. Furthermore, early reckoning of the day-to-day stress which may lead to clinical diagnosis is the best way of preventing the stress-related diseases. Among the many alternative medicinal options, there is little evidence that fasciatherapy (Fs) and reflexology (Rf) are effective in this field.

PURPOSE

assess incidence of fasciatherapy Danis Bois Method (DBM) and of reflexology on patients' stress level in everyday-life, and provide a more informed choice among the numerous mind and body techniques by comparing them with hypnosis (Hp) and music therapy (Mt).

SETTINGS

Specialized Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) centres for outpatients.

PARTICIPANTS

308 individuals (average age = 50.53 SD 14.37, 93 males, 215 females) going to the centres for health care, but free from serious diseases and not heavily medicated respecting the inclusion criteria and providing valid forms.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Four armed, non-randomized observational pragmatic trial with pretest-posttest repeated measures, on separate samples of natural groups.

INTERVENTION

According to the centre participants where they used to be treated, they were exposed to a single semi-standardized session of a technique of their choice: Fs, Rf, Hp, Mt. Volunteers had a controlled non-intervention resting (Rt) session.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Mean STAI-Y assessing anxiety as reflecting the stress level: MANCOVA and ANCOVA performed with Tukey's HSD.

RESULTS

MANCOVA indicates a significant reduction of anxiety (p < .01) in each condition, resting included. ANCOVA performance adjusting on stress level in T0 (41.73) and on the mean sumscore of the trait (44.89), Fs (-13.92), Rf (-15.92), and Hp (-15.88) were equally effective on the stress level decrease. Mt (-10.0) and Rt (-6.38) showed the same level of effectiveness.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest fasciatherapy DBM, hypnosis, and reflexology could be used as non-pharmacological and safe interventions in stress management. Though showing a lesser efficiency, music therapy could be useful in different circumstances.

Perceived weight discrimination, changes in health, and daily stressors

OBJECTIVE

To examine whether perceived weight discrimination is associated with change in health markers over time and whether it is associated with daily stressors, physical symptoms, and affect.

METHODS

Participants were selected from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study if they had data on perceived weight discrimination and health markers at MIDUS II (2004-2006), health markers at MIDUS III (2013-2014), and a body mass index ≥25 kg/m(2) (N = 1,841). A subset of these participants (N = 1,153) reported on their experiences daily for 8 days as part of the second National Study of Daily Experiences.

RESULTS

Perceived weight discrimination was associated with declines in mental and physical health over time (median β = 0.06). Participants who reported weight discrimination experienced more daily stressors (β = 0.13), physical symptoms (β = 0.13), and negative affect (β = 0.13) and less positive affect (β = -0.12) over the 8 days of the second National Study of Daily Experiences. Weight discrimination was most strongly associated with interpersonal stressors (median β = 0.14), feelings of anger (β = 0.16) and frustration (β = 0.14), lower attention (β = -0.14) and activity (β = -0.16), and more nonspecific physical symptoms (e.g., fatigue; β = 0.10).

CONCLUSIONS

This research replicates the association between perceived weight discrimination and worse health over time and extends this literature to show that people who experience weight discrimination have more daily stressors, physical symptoms, and negative emotions.

Threats to communion and agency mediate associations between stressor type and daily coping

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Basic human values have been categorized into two dimensions: those that are self or agentically focused, and those that are other or communally focused. We apply this model to cognitive appraisals of stress and argue that threat appraisals also fall into these two dimensions. The mediating roles of communal and agentic threats in linking stressors with coping responses were examined.

DESIGN

A daily process methodology was used.

METHODS

Three-hundred and fifty undergraduate students were followed midday and evening over one week, completing structured electronic diaries regarding their experiences of the past half-day. Participants described stressors in open-ended format, which were then coded into social stress, achievement stress, and other stress categories. They also completed scales measuring stress appraisals and coping.

RESULTS

Communal threat mediated links between social stressors and empathic responding, support seeking, and confrontation. Agentic threat mediated links between achievement stressors and empathic responding, support seeking, confrontation, and problem solving.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals tend to cope in ways that maintain communion when they perceive communion to be threatened; they tend to cope in ways that maintain agency when they perceive agency to be threatened.

Does leisure time moderate or mediate the effect of daily stress on positive affect? An examination using eight-day diary data

This study tested the applicability of moderation and mediation models to leisure time as a stress coping resource. Analyzing eight-day diary data (N=2,022), we examined the within-person process of using leisure time to cope with daily stressors. We found that relatively high daily stress frequency, while reducing positive affect, prompted an individual to allocate more time to leisure than usual, which then increased positive affect, thus partially remedying the damage by high daily stress frequency. This within-person process, however, is significantly stronger among those with less leisure time on average than leisure-rich individuals. The findings support a partial counteractive mediation model, demonstrate between-person difference in the within-person coping process, and reveal the importance of positive affect as a coping outcome.

Maternal history of child abuse moderates the association between daily stress and diurnal cortisol in pregnancy: a pilot study

Previous research on the association between maternal daily stress and cortisol in pregnancy has yielded inconsistent findings. However, past studies have not considered whether stressful experiences in childhood impact maternal cortisol regulation in pregnancy. In this pilot study, we aimed to examine whether the association between maternal daily stress and cortisol differed according to maternal history of child abuse. Forty-one women provided salivary cortisol samples at wake-up, 30 min after wake-up, and bedtime for 3 days at three times over second and third trimesters of pregnancy. On each day of cortisol collection women reported their daily stress. Women reported child abuse experiences prior to age 18 years by completing 15 items from the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale. Twenty-one percent (N = 9) of women reported a history of child sexual abuse (CSA), 44% (N = 18) reported a history of non-sexual child abuse and 34% (N = 14) reported no history of child abuse. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analyses revealed that stress in the day prior was associated with increases in morning cortisol in women with CSA histories compared to women with non-sexual abuse histories or no history of child abuse. Increases in evening cortisol were associated with increases in daily stress in women with CSA histories compared to women with non-sexual abuse histories or no history of child abuse. Results reveal a dynamic association between daily stress and cortisol in pregnancy and suggest that patterns differ according to maternal child abuse history.

Does Leisure Time as a Stress Coping Resource Increase Affective Complexity? Applying the Dynamic Model of Affect (DMA)

Affective complexity, a manifestation of psychological well-being, refers to the relative independence between positive and negative affect (PA, NA). According to the Dynamic Model of Affect (DMA), stressful situations lead to highly inverse PA-NA relationship, reducing affective complexity. Meanwhile, positive events can sustain affective complexity by restoring PA-NA independence. Leisure, a type of positive events, has been identified as a coping resource. This study used the DMA to assess whether leisure time helps restore affective complexity on stressful days. We found that on days with more leisure time than usual, an individual experienced less negative PA-NA relationship after daily stressful events. The finding demonstrates the value of leisure time as a coping resource and the DMA's contribution to coping research.

Personality-Related Risk and Resilience Factors in Coping with Daily Stress among Adult Cancer Patients

We employed a diary design to study personality-related risk and resilience factors in adult cancer patients coping with daily stress. We focused on individuals' self-concept incoherence (SCI) as a personality-related risk factor and on psychological well-being (PWB) at baseline and daily beliefs of control as resilience factors. Reactivity to daily stress was assessed in terms of negative daily mood. Multilevel modeling analyses yielded significant main effects of daily stress, PWB at baseline, and daily control. These main effects were qualified by significant two- and three-way interactions. The significant Stress X Control interaction indicated that individuals reported more negative mood in response to daily stress on low-control days compared to high-control days. Similarly, a significant SCI X Control interaction suggested that individuals with a more coherent self-concept benefited more from feeling in control in terms of experiencing less increase in negative mood compared to individuals with a more incoherent self-concept. Significant three-way interactions also indicated that the associations between stress, control and negative daily mood differed by level of SCI and level of PWB at the beginning of the study. Overall, the findings from this study show the complex associations between risk and resilience factors and daily emotional well-being in a sample of adults who were affected by a life-threatening illness.

Daily stressors and self-reported changes in memory in old age: the mediating effects of daily negative affect and cognitive interference

This study examined individual differences in exposure to daily stressors and self-reported changes in memory among older adults. A sample of 87 older adults completed measures of daily stressful experiences, negative affect (NA), cognitive interference (CI), and rated their memory compared to six months ago. Results indicated that more frequent exposure to daily stressors was associated with rating one's memory to be worse compared to six months prior. Furthermore, CI, but not NA partially mediated this association. The findings highlight CI as a psychological pathway for understanding the links between daily stress and perceptions of memory and cognition in old age.

Use of personal EEG monitors in a behavioral neuroscience course to investigate natural setting sleep patterns and the factors affecting them in college students

Sleep is often a topic of avid interest to college students, yet it is one that does not yield itself well to hands-on, interactive learning modules. Supplementing classroom learning with interactive "real world" laboratory activities provides students with a deeper understanding of behavior and its neural control. The project described here was designed to supplement the teaching of EEGs, sleep and circadian rhythms and involved students in the empirical process from hypothesizing about the factors that affect sleep, to personal data collection, data analysis and writing in the style of a peer-reviewed manuscript. Students enrolled in Behavioral Neuroscience at Connecticut College were provided with a home-based personal EEG monitor used to collect sleep data in their natural sleep setting. Participants recorded sleep data with the use of the ZEO® Personal Sleep Coach system and completed a nightly sleep journal questionnaire for seven nights. The ZEO® system uses EEG patterns to define sleep stages including wakefulness, light, deep and REM sleep. The journal included questions about factors known to affect sleep such as stress, caffeine, academic activity, exercise and alcohol. A class data set was compiled and used by students to perform univariate correlations examining the relationships between ZEO® variables and sleep journal variables. The data set allowed students to choose specific variables to investigate, analyze and write a peer-reviewed style manuscript. Significant class-wide correlations were found between specific sleep stages and behavioral variables suggesting that the ZEO® system is sophisticated yet inexpensive enough to be used as an effective tool in the classroom setting. Overall student feedback on the exercise was positive with many students indicating that it significantly enhanced their understanding of sleep architecture and made them keenly aware of the factors that affect quality of sleep.

Intraindividual coupling of daily stressors and cognitive interference in old age

OBJECTIVES

The current study examined emotional and cognitive reactions to daily stress. We examined the psychometric properties of a short cognitive interference measure and how cognitive interference was associated with measures of daily stress and negative affect (NA) between persons and within persons over time.

METHODS

A sample of 87 older adults (M(age) = 83, range = 70-97, 28% male) completed measures of daily stress, cognitive interference, and NA on 6 days within a 14-day period.

RESULTS

The measure yielded a single-factor solution with good reliability both between and within persons. At the between-person level, NA accounted for the effects of daily stress on individual differences in cognitive interference. At the within-person level, NA and daily stress were unique predictors of cognitive interference. Furthermore, the within-person effect of daily stress on cognitive interference decreased significantly with age.

DISCUSSION

These results support theoretical work regarding associations among stress, NA, and cognitive interference, both across persons and within persons over time.

Fluid cognitive ability is associated with greater exposure and smaller reactions to daily stressors

The authors of this study investigated whether fluid cognitive ability predicts exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors. A national sample of adults from the Midlife in the United States study and the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 1,202) who had a mean age of 57 years (SD = 12; 56% women, 44% men) completed positive and negative mood reports as well as a stressor diary on 8 consecutive evenings via telephone. Participants also completed a telephone-based battery of tests measuring fluid cognitive ability. Higher levels of fluid cognitive ability were associated with greater exposure to work- and home-related overload stressors. Possessing higher levels of fluid cognitive ability was associated with smaller stressor-related increases in negative mood, primarily for interpersonal tensions and network stressors, and smaller stressor-related decreases in positive mood for interpersonal tensions. Furthermore, fluid cognitive ability was unrelated to subjective severity ratings of the stressors reported. Discussion focuses on the role of fluid cognitive ability in daily stress processes.