How Are You Feeling Today? Dynamic and Static Indices of Daily Affect Predict Psychological Adjustment One Year Later in a Multi-cohort, Longitudinal Investigation

Abstract

Background Dominant psychotherapies target how individuals experience and understand their daily emotion. Therefore, research examining how daily emotions influence long-term mental health outcomes may help inform treatment development. Methods This investigation applied a multi-cohort (n = 378; n = 460), longitudinal design to test how reports of daily emotion predict psychological symptoms, loneliness, and wellbeing one-year later. Dynamic indices (polarity, inertia) reflecting “how” emotional experiences are conceptualized moment-to-moment and static indices (person-mean, standard deviation) of emotion were extracted from 10 daily reports. Each index was modelled individually, in concert with others, and in relation to a key dispositional factor in symptom development: trait anxiety. Results Dynamic indices predicted outcomes one-year later, but only the effect of positive emotional inertia remained significant after accounting for mean intensity of affect. Daily reports of emotion also predicted small but significant variance in outcomes beyond trait anxiety. Conclusions Results highlight the role of daily subjective experiences of emotion in long-term mental health outcomes and reinforce their importance as targets for treatment.