Effects of daily stress on negative mood.

Abstract

This article examines the influence of daily stressors on mental health in a community sample. Ss were 166 married couples who completed diaries each day for 6 weeks. In pooled within-person analyses, daily stressors explained up to 20% of the variance in mood. Interpersonal conflicts were by far the most distressing events. Furthermore, when stressors occurred on a series of days, emotional habituation occurred by the second day for almost all events except interpersonal conflicts. Contrary to certain theoretical accounts, multiple stressors on the same day did not exacerbate one another's effects; rather, an emotional plateau occurred. Finally, on days following a stressful event, mood was better than it would have been if the stressor had not happened. These results reveal the complex emotional effects of daily stressors, and in particular, they suggest that future investigations should focus primarily on interpersonal conflicts.In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that minor, everyday stressors influence health and psychological wellbeing (DeLongis, Coyne, Dakof, Folkman, & Lazarus, 1982;Eckenrode, 1984;Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, & Lazarus, 1981). As a result, there has been a reorientation in stress research from a nearly exclusive emphasis on major events to an appreciation of the significance of minor environmental stressors. These minor stressors (e.g., work deadlines, marital arguments) are an important focus of research because they provide a means of describing the stressful features of enduring relationships (e.g., spouse, friend) and roles (e.g., worker, student).Despite the growing research interest in minor stressors, work to date has implicitly assumed that all minor stressors are equivalent. This is exemplified by the almost universal practice of aggregating these stressors into a summary measure for analytic purposes. Thus, with one notable exception (Stone, 1987), ~ there have been no studies of the differential effects of minor stressors on health and well-being. This type of aggregation may obscure important variation in the microprocesses underlying psychological well-being. Previous studies of major stressors have demonstrated that stressor disaggregation reveals important variability in effects (e.g., Eckenrode & Gore, 1981;Kessler & McLeod, 1984). Similarly, analyses of coping proAuthors' names are listed alphabetically. This research was supported by Merit Award I-MOI-MH42714, Research Scientist Development Award I-KO1-MH00507, Research Grants 2-ROI-MH41135 and 1-RO 1-MH42714, and Training Grant 5 T32-MH 16806, all from the National Institute of Mental Health.We thank Steve Hopkins for research assistance and James Coyne, John Eckenrode, Elaine Wethington, and Camille Wortman for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.Niall Bolger is now at the University of Denver. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ronaid C. Kessler, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248. 808cesses show strong variability in res...

Types of stressors that increase susceptibility to the common cold in healthy adults.

“…Instead, it indicates that these stressors, when they occur, are potent. These results are, however, consistent with other evidence that both interpersonal conflicts (Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler, & Schilling, 1989;Brown & Harris, 1989;Kiecolt-Glaser et al, 1993) and unemployment (Kasl, 1978) are detrimental to health.…”

Profiles of depressive symptoms among African Americans and Caribbean Blacks

“…Negative interactions (e.g., conflict, excessive demands, criticism) are a direct source of stress that have serious consequences for mental health. In fact, unpleasant encounters with social network members arouse more distress than do other types of stress (Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler, & Schilling, 1989;Zautra, Burleson, Matt, Roth, & Burrows, 1994), persist over a longer period of time (Bolger et al, 1989), and their harmful effects on mental health often outweigh the positive benefits of social support (Gray & Keith, 2003;Lincoln, Chatters, & Taylor, 2003, 2005.…”

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

“…SST suggests that as the end of life approaches, preference is given to satisfying social and emotional goals, as well as regulating one's emotions such that positive emotional experiences are maximized and negative emotional experiences are minimized. Considerable evidence exists showing that reported exposure to daily stressors is associated with increases in negative affect (Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler & Schilling, 1989;Bolger & Schilling, 1991;Marco & Suls, 1993;Smyth, Ockenfels, Porter, Kirschbaum, Hellhammer & Stone, 1998;van Eck, Nicolson & Berkhof, 1998;Zautra, Affleck, Tennen, Reich & Davis, 2005), and daily distress (Almeida & Kessler, 1998;Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995;Grzywacz et al, 2004;Serido, Almeida & Wethington, 2004). Because our emotions are inextricably linked to our experiences, daily stress research can help to understand the contexts associated with daily emotional experiences, as well as the role daily stressors play in emotional experiences across the adult lifespan.…”