Risk and resilience factors in coping with daily stress in adulthood: The role of age, self-concept incoherence, and personal control.

This study observed young, middle-aged, and older adults (N = 239; Mage = 49.6 years; range = 18–89 years) for 30 consecutive days to examine the association between daily stress and negative affect, taking into account potential risk (i.e., self-concept incoherence) and resilience (i.e., age, perceived personal control) factors. Results indicated that younger individuals and individuals with a more incoherent self-concept showed higher average negative affect across the study. As well, individuals reported higher negative affect on days that they experienced more stress than usual and on days that they reported less control than usual. These main effects were qualified by significant interactions. In particular, the association between daily stress and negative affect was stronger on days on which adults reported low control compared with days on which they reported high control (i.e., perceptions of control buffered stress). Reactivity to daily stress did not differ for individuals of different ages or for individuals with different levels of self-concept incoherence. Although all individuals reported higher negative affect on days on which they reported less control than usual, this association was more pronounced among younger adults. The current study helps to elucidate the role of risk and resilience factors when adults are faced with daily stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reported exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors: The roles of adult age and global perceived stress.

A central goal of daily stress research is to identify resilience and vulnerability factors associated with exposure and reactivity to daily stressors. The present study examined how age differences and global perceptions of stress relate to exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors. Sixty-seven younger (Mage = 20) and 116 older (Mage = 80) adults completed a daily stress diary and measures of positive and negative affect on 6 days over a 14-day period. Participants also completed a measure of global perceived stress. Results revealed that reported exposure to daily stressors is reduced in old age but that emotional reactivity to daily stressors did not differ between younger and older adults. Global perceived stress was associated with greater reported exposure to daily stressors in older adults and greater stress-related increases in negative affect in younger adults. Furthermore, across days on which daily stressors were reported, intraindividual variability in the number and severity of stressors reported was associated with increased negative affect, but only among younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Socioeconomic Status, Resources, Psychological Experiences, and Emotional Responses: A Test of the Reserve Capacity Model.

The current study used ecological momentary assessment to test several tenets of the reserve capacity model (L.C. Gallo & K. A. Matthews, 2003). Women (N = 108) with varying socioeconomic status (SES) monitored positive and negative psychosocial experiences and emotions across 2 days. Measures of intrapsychic and social resources were aggregated to represent the reserve capacity available to manage stress. Lower SES was associated with less perceived control and positive affect and more social strain. Control and strain contributed to the association between SES and positive affect. Lower SES elicited greater positive but not negative emotional reactivity to psychosocial experiences. Women with low SES had fewer resources relative to those with higher SES, and resources contributed to the association between SES and daily experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological resilience, positive emotions, and successful adaptation to stress in later life.

In 3 studies, the authors investigated the functional role of psychological resilience and positive emotions in the stress process. Studies 1a and 1b explored naturally occurring daily stressors. Study 2 examined data from a sample of recently bereaved widows. Across studies, multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses revealed that the occurrence of daily positive emotions serves to moderate stress reactivity and mediate stress recovery. Findings also indicated that differences in psychological resilience accounted for meaningful variation in daily emotional responses to stress. Higher levels of trait resilience predicted a weaker association between positive and negative emotions, particularly on days characterized by heightened stress. Finally, findings indicated that over time, the experience of positive emotions functions to assist high-resilient individuals in their ability to recover effectively from daily stress. Implications for research into protective factors that serve to inhibit the scope, severity, and diffusion of daily stressors in later adulthood are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relations of daily task accomplishment satisfaction with changes in affect: A multilevel study in nurses.

Focusing on a sample of nurses, this investigation examined the relationships of daily task accomplishment satisfaction (for direct and indirect care tasks) with changes in positive and negative affect from preshift to postshift. Not accomplishing tasks to one's satisfaction was conceptualized as a daily workplace stressor that should increase daily negative affect and decrease daily positive affect from preshift to postshift. Further, because of the greater centrality of direct care nursing tasks to nursing work role identities (relative to indirect care tasks), we expected that task accomplishment satisfaction (or lack thereof) for these tasks would have stronger effects on changes in affect than would task accomplishment satisfaction for indirect care tasks. We also examined 2 person-level resources, collegial nurse–physician relations and psychological resilience, as moderators of the relationships among these daily variables, with the expectation that these resources would buffer the harmful effects of low task accomplishment satisfaction on nurse affect. Results supported almost all of the proposed effects, though the cross-level interactions were observed only for the effects of indirect care task accomplishment satisfaction on affect and not for direct care task accomplishment satisfaction on affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress resilience in early marriage: Can practice make perfect?

As all couples experience stressful life events, addressing how couples adapt to stress is imperative for understanding marital development. Drawing from theories of stress inoculation, which suggest that the successful adaptation to moderately stressful events may help individuals develop a resilience to future stress, the current studies examined whether experiences with manageable stressors early in the marriage may serve to make the relationship more resilient to future stress. In Study 1, 61 newlywed couples provided data regarding their stressful life events, relationship resources (i.e., observed problem-solving behaviors), and marital satisfaction at multiple points over 2? years. Results revealed that among spouses displaying more effective problem-solving behaviors, those who experienced moderate stress during the early months of marriage exhibited fewer future stress spillover effects and reported greater increases in felt efficacy than did spouses who had less experience with early stress. Study 2 examined stress resilience following the transition to parenthood in a new sample of 50 newlywed couples. Again, spouses who experienced moderate stress during the early months of marriage and had good initial relationship resources (i.e., observed support behaviors) reported greater marital adjustment following the transition to parenthood than did spouses who had good initial resources but less prior experience coping with stress. Together, results indicate that entering marriage with better relationship resources may not be sufficient to shield marital satisfaction from the detrimental effects of stress; rather, couples may also need practice in using those resources to navigate manageable stressful events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mindfulness is associated with fewer PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and alcohol problems in urban firefighters.

Objective: This study investigated the association between mindfulness, other resilience resources, and several measures of health in 124 urban firefighters. Method: Participants completed health measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and alcohol problems and measures of resilience resources including mindfulness, optimism, personal mastery, and social support. The Mindful Awareness and Attention Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003) was used to assess mindfulness. Participants also completed measures of firefighter stress, number of calls, and years as a firefighter as control variables. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted with the health measures as the dependent variables with 3 levels of independent variables: (a) demographic characteristics, (b) firefighter variables, and (c) resilience resources. Results: The results showed that mindfulness was associated with fewer PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and alcohol problems when controlling for the other study variables. Personal mastery and social support were also related to fewer depressive symptoms, firefighter stress was related to more PTSD symptoms and alcohol problems, and years as a firefighter were related to fewer alcohol problems. Conclusions: Mindfulness may be important to consider and include in models of stress, coping, and resilience in firefighters. Future studies should examine the prospective relationship between mindfulness and health in firefighters and others in high-stress occupations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in ambulatory blood pressure during daily stress: Evidence for greater blood pressure reactivity with age.

Prior research on age and emotions has found that older adults may show better physiological regulation to stressful stimuli than do younger adults. However, the stress reactivity literature has shown that age is associated with higher cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stress (J. R. Jennings et al., 1997). The authors investigated these conflicting findings further by examining daily ambulatory blood pressure in 428 middle-aged to older adults. Consistent with the age and reactivity literature, relatively old individuals showed significantly greater increases in ambulatory diastolic blood pressure compared with younger individuals when dealing with daily stressors. However, results also revealed that relatively old individuals reported less of an increase in negative affect during daily stress compared with their younger counterparts. The results of this study are consistent with the age-related increase in cardiovascular risk but highlight the complex links between stress and different facets of the aging process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neural and behavioral measures of error-related cognitive control predict daily coping with stress.

This study tested the hypothesis that individual differences in cognitive control can predict individual differences in emotion regulation. Participants completed color–word and emotional Stroop tasks while an electroencephalogram was recorded, and then they reported daily stressful events, affect, and coping for 14 days. Greater posterror slowing in the emotional Stroop task predicted greater negative affect in response to stressors and less use of task-focused coping as daily stressors increased. Participants whose neural activity best distinguished errors from correct responses tended to show less stress reactivity in daily self-reports. Finally, depression levels predicted daily affect and coping independent of cognitive control variables. The results offer qualified support for an integrated conception of cognitive and emotional self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily stress, cortisol, and sleep: The moderating role of childhood psychosocial environments.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore whether childhood family environments moderated the relation between daily stress and daily biological outcomes (sleep, cortisol output) in healthy young adults. Design: There were 87 participants, ages 19 to 25 who provided information on characteristics of their childhood family environment (conflict, parental warmth). Main Outcome Measures: For 1 week they completed a daily stress checklist via electronic diary, provided salivary cortisol samples 4 times a day, and wore an Actiwatch to measure sleep (minutes, efficiency). Data was analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results: Family risk significantly moderated the relation between daily number of stressors and sleep minutes (b = ?12.10, p = .02), such that the more difficult one's childhood environment, the less sleep individuals got on days in which they experienced a greater number of stressors. Parental warmth moderated the relation between stress severity and cortisol output (b = ?0.19, p = .04), such that the less parental warmth individuals received during childhood, the more cortisol they secreted on days that they experienced more severe stress. Conclusions: The childhood psychosocial environment may have long-term effects on biological responses to daily stress, creating vulnerability to disease in individuals from difficult childhoods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intraindividual change and variability in daily stress processes: Findings from two measurement-burst diary studies.

There is little longitudinal information on aging-related changes in emotional responses to negative events. In the present article, we examined intraindividual change and variability in the within-person coupling of daily stress and negative affect using data from 2 measurement-burst daily diary studies. Three main findings emerged. First, average reactivity to daily stress increased longitudinally, and this increase was evident across most of the adult lifespan. Second, individual differences in emotional reactivity to daily stress exhibited long-term temporal stability, but this stability was greatest in midlife and decreased in old age. Third, reactivity to daily stress varied reliably within-persons (across-time), with individuals exhibiting higher levels of reactivity during times when reporting high levels of global subject stress in the previous month. Taken together, the present results emphasize the importance of modeling dynamic psychosocial and aging processes that operate across different time scales for understanding age-related changes in daily stress processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial discrimination and the stress process.

The unique and combined effects of chronic and daily racial discrimination on psychological distress were examined in a sample of 174 African American doctoral students and graduates. Using a daily process design, 5 models of the stress process were tested. Multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses revealed that chronic exposure to racial discrimination predicted greater daily discrimination and psychological distress. Further, results show that differences in daily discrimination and negative events accounted for meaningful variation in daily distress responses. Finally, findings indicate that daily discrimination and negative events mediated the relationship between chronic discrimination and psychological distress. The study provides support for the need to measure chronic strains as distinctive from daily stressors in the lives of African Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in dynamical emotion-cognition linkages.

The ability to maintain the separation between positive emotion and negative emotion in times of stress has been construed as a resilience mechanism. Emotional resiliency is particularly relevant in old age given concomitant declines in cognitive performance. In the present study, the authors examined the dynamical linkages among positive emotion, negative emotion, and cognition as individuals performed a complex cognitive task. Comparisons were made between younger (n = 63) and older (n = 52) age groups. Older adults manifested significant unidirectional coupling from negative emotion to cognitive performance; younger adults manifested significant unidirectional coupling from negative emotion to positive emotion and from cognitive performance to both positive and negative emotions. Implications for age differences in emotion regulatory strategies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Normal aging dampens the link between intrusive thoughts and negative affect in reaction to daily stressors.

We charted daily variations in intrusive thoughts to gain access to adult age differences in affective reactivity to daily stressors. On 100 days, 101 younger and 103 older adults reported stressors, intrusive thoughts, and negative affect. Although increments in intrusive thoughts were similar in both age groups on days with stressors, older adults' negative affect increased less than younger adults' on such days. In addition, (a) levels of intrusive thoughts and negative affect across study time were positively associated; (b) days with increased thoughts were days with increased negative affect; and (c) experiencing above-average intrusive thoughts about stressors strengthened affective reactions to stress. Relative to younger adults, all three associations were reduced in older adults. We tentatively conclude that normal aging dampens the stress-induced link between intrusive thoughts and affect. This dampening may contribute to preserved affective well-being and reduced affective reactivity to daily stress in old age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal mood, video-mediated cognitions, and daily stress during home-based, family interactions.

This article presents an in vivo investigation of maternal negative mood, maternal video-mediated cognitions, and daily stressors in families with young children. Specifically, it was hypothesized that greater levels of maternal depressed, anxious, and hostile mood states immediately prior to a daily, reportedly routine, stressful parent–child interaction would be significantly associated with higher percentages of dysfunctional and lower percentages of functional cognitions. Forty-five mothers of 2- to 5-year-old children participated in this study by rating their mood before being videotaped in a daily routine with their child they reported as recurrent and stressful (e.g., mealtime). Using video-mediated recall (VMR) methodology, mothers were instructed to recall their cognitions upon immediate video review. Results indicated that greater levels of negative mood were associated with a greater percentage of dysfunctional cognitions and a smaller percentage of functional cognitions. Levels of maternal depressed mood were significantly and independently associated with greater rates of dysfunctional and lower rates of functional cognitions. Negative mood states were not consistently associated with the amount of maternal self-reported general irrationality, pointing to the utility of the VMR to elicit maternal cognitions specific to the observed interaction, which may have more implications for clinical intervention than more general irrationality measures. Evaluating maternal mood and using video-mediated maternal cognitions regarding daily family stressors can precipitate clinical interventions meant to reduce family-related stress and potentially improve maternal and child mental health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress and binge drinking: A daily process examination of stressor pile-up and socioeconomic status in affect regulation.

The goal of this study was to enhance understanding of the interconnections between stress, negative mood, and alcohol use. Daily diary data collected over eight consecutive nights from a nationally representative adult cohort were used to identify if (1) daily stress and cumulative stress pile-up were associated with increased risk of binge drinking, (2) negative affect mediated associations between stressors and binge drinking, and (3) associations among stress, negative affect and binge drinking were moderated by educational attainment as an indicator of socioeconomic status. Results indicated that the odds of binge drinking were higher on days that individuals experienced more severe stressors in contrast to no-stress days. Further, the odds of binge drinking also increased as stressors piled-up over consecutive days. There was no evidence that negative affect mediated associations between stressors and binge drinking. Associations of daily stressors and stressor pile-up with binge drinking were moderated by educational attainment. Study results suggest that affect regulation researchers need to handle "stress" in a multidimensional way and better situate stressors and individuals stress responses within their social context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interplay of concurrent positive and negative interpersonal events in the prediction of daily negative affect and fatigue for rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the interaction of daily concurrent positive interpersonal events (PIE) and negative interpersonal events (NIE) on the daily experience of negative affect and fatigue in a sample of men and women with rheumatoid arthritis. Two hypotheses were made. The blunting hypothesis predicted that NIE would nullify the beneficial influence of PIE on outcome measures, and the buffering hypothesis predicted that PIE would offset the adverse influence of NIE. Design: Participants completed up to 30 consecutive daily diaries. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the day-to-day dependencies among study variables. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcomes were daily negative affect and fatigue. Results: In support of the blunting hypothesis, on days when NIE were diminished, PIE were associated with a greater reduction in fatigue. In contrast, consistent with the buffering hypothesis, on days when PIE were elevated, NIE were associated with a lesser increase in negative affect. Conclusion: The examination of concurrent PIE and NIE provides a unique perspective on the role of interpersonal events in affective and physiological outcomes, beyond that which can be gained from the examination of either type of event in isolation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intraindividual variability in positive and negative affect over 45 days: Do older adults fluctuate less than young adults?

Opposing scenarios about age-related increases and decreases in intraindividual variability are found in the literature: Whereas accumulating evidence indicates that cognitive functioning is characterized by an age-related increase of short-term variability, age-related decreases in variability could be expected in affective states on the basis of theories of emotion regulation and self development. We examined age differences in intraindividual variability of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) and in contingencies among daily affect, daily stress, and daily events using up to 45 daily assessments of 18 young (20–30 years) and 19 older (70–80 years) adults. Whereas age groups differed little in average affect levels, older adults showed significantly less variability in PA and NA than young adults. Age differences accounted for greater variance in variability than personality factors. Multilevel modeling indicated that for young but not older adults, PA was higher (lower) on days with a positive (negative) event, and NA was lower on days with a positive event. There were no age differences in daily affect reactivity to appraised stress severity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily and momentary mood and stress are associated with binge eating and vomiting in bulimia nervosa patients in the natural environment.

The relation of mood and stress to binge eating and vomiting in the natural environments of patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) was examined using real-time data collection. Women (n = 131; mean age = 25.3 years) with BN carried a palmtop computer for 2 weeks and completed ratings of positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), anger/hostility (AH), and stress (STRS); they also indicated binge or vomit episodes (BN-events) 6 times each day. Mixed models were used to compare mood and STRS between and within days when BN-events occurred. Between-days analyses indicated that binge and vomit days both showed less PA, higher NA, higher AH, and greater STRS than days with no BN-events. Within-day, decreasing PA, and increasing NA and AH, reliably preceded BN-events. Conversely, PA increased, and NA and AH decreased following BN-events. Demonstration of the temporal sequencing of affect, STRS, and BN-events with a large BN sample may help advance theory and clinical practice, and supports the view that binge and purge events hold negatively reinforcing properties for women with BN. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health-Related Stress, Affect, and Depressive Symptoms Experienced by Caregiving Mothers of Adults With a Developmental Disability.

The interrelationships among health-related stress, positive and negative affect, and depressive symptoms patterned in the dynamic model of affect (J. Reich, A. Zautra, & M. Davis, 2003) were examined using data from 932 women having an adult child with a developmental disability. Results indicate that women experience a moderate inverse correlation between positive and negative affect under conditions of low levels of health-related stress, whereas at high levels of stress, positive and negative affect become more strongly inversely correlated. Under high-stress conditions, both negative affect and positive affect have a stronger relationship to depressive symptoms than they do under low-stress conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)