Depressive traits predict stress and emotional reactivity trajectory in college students: An intensive longitudinal ecological stress induction study.

Abstract

Depression is a leading emotional disorder among college students, affecting their general well-being, motivation, and academic performance. Stress reactivity and its trajectory over time is a well-known marker of depression. Yet, there is debate on how this trajectory would look like in an ecological setting. A leading hypothesis is that of the Emotion Context Insensitivity (ECI) framework, which states that depressed individuals experience a reduced reactivity to emotional cues and less recovery from stressful events. On the basis of ECI's assumption, the present study investigates trajectories of stress, negative, and positive affect in a sample of 188 college students. Participants were screened for depression and monitored for 6 days up to the moment of the exam, during the exam, and immediately after the exam. A multilevel modeling approach was used to examine outcome trajectory over time. The findings showed that students with higher depression levels have a different exam and stress experience from their peers. Students with higher depression did not grow as much as their less depressed peers in stress and negative affect levels as the moment of the exam approached. Moreover, their stress and negative affect levels had already peaked days before the exam. No such differential effects were seen overall at recovery or in regards to positive emotions. Our results indicate the importance of addressing stress and emotion trajectories in prevention and intervention programs targeting depression in college students.