Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The way we respond to life’s daily stressors has strong implications for our physical health. Researchers have documented the detrimental effects of initial emotional reactivity to daily stressors on future physical health outcomes but have yet to examine the effects of emotions that linger after a stressor occurs. The current study investigated how negative affect that lingers the day after a minor stressor occurs is associated with health-related outcomes. Participants (N = 1,155) in a community-based, nationwide study answered questions about daily stressors and affect across 8 consecutive days and about their physical health almost 10 years later. Multilevel models indicated that people experience heightened levels of negative affect the day after a stressor occurs. Furthermore, higher levels of lingering negative affect are associated with greater numbers of chronic conditions and worse functional limitations 10 years later. Findings suggest that affective recovery from daily stressors has unique importance for long-term physical health.

Keywords

emotions stressors lingering negative affect aging health open data

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Almeida

D. M.

McGonagle

King

(2009). Assessing daily stress processes in social surveys by combining stressor exposure and salivary cortisol. Biodemography and Social Biology, 55, 219–237.

Almeida

D. M.

Wethington

Kessler

R. C.

(2002). The Daily Inventory of Stressful Events: An interview-based approach for measuring daily stressors. Assessment, 9, 41–55.

Barrett

L. F.

Simmons

W. K.

(2015). Interoceptive predictions in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16, 419–429.

Brosschot

J. F.

Gerin

Thayer

J. F.

(2006). The perseverative cognition hypothesis: A review of worry, prolonged stress-related physiological activation, and health. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60, 113–124.

Brosschot

J. F.

van der Doef

(2006). Daily worrying and somatic health complaints: Testing the effectiveness of a simple worry reduction intervention. Psychology and Health, 21, 19–31.

Cacioppo

J. T.

(1998). Somatic responses to psychological stress: The reactivity hypothesis. In Sabourin

Craik

Robert

(Eds.), Advances in psychological science (Vol. 2, pp. 87–114). East Sussex, England: Psychology Press.

Charles

S. T.

Almeida

D. M.

(2006). Daily reports of symptoms and negative affect: Not all symptoms are the same. Psychology and Health, 21, 1–17.

Charles

S. T.

Piazza

J. R.

Mogle

Sliwinski

M. J.

Almeida

D. M.

(2013). The wear and tear of daily stressors on mental health. Psychological Science, 24, 733–741.

Cohen

L. H.

Gunthert

K. C.

Butler

A. C.

O’Neill

S. C.

Tolpin

L. H.

(2005). Daily affective reactivity as a prospective predictor of depressive symptoms. Journal of Personality, 73, 1687–1714.

10.

Fulkerson

J. A.

Sherwood

N. E.

Perry

C. L.

Neumark-Sztainer

Story

(2004). Depressive symptoms and adolescent eating and health behaviors: A multifaceted view in a population-based sample. Preventive Medicine, 38, 865–875.

11.

Glynn

L. M.

Christenfeld

Gerin

(2002). The role of rumination in recovery from reactivity: Cardiovascular consequences of emotional states. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 714–726.

12.

Gruber

Harvey

A. G.

Johnson

S. L.

(2009). Reflective and ruminative processing of positive emotional memories in bipolar disorder and healthy controls. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 697–704.

13.

Henderson

C. M.

Rosasco

Robinson

L. M.

Meccarello

Janicki

M. P.

Turk

M. A.

Davidson

P. W.

(2009). Functional impairment severity is associated with health status among older persons with intellectual disability and cerebral palsy. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 53, 887–897.

14.

Katz

Ford

A. B.

Moskowitz

R. W.

Jackson

B. A.

Jaffe

M. W.

(1963). Studies of illness in the aged. The index of ADL: A standardized measure of biological and psychosocial function. Journal of the American Medical Association, 185, 914–919.

15.

Kross

Ayduk

Mischel

(2005). When asking “why” does not hurt: Distinguishing rumination from reflective processing of negative emotions. Psychological Science, 16, 709–715.

16.

Lawton

M. P.

Brody

E. M.

(1970). Assessment of older people: Self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. The Gerontologist, 9, 179–186.

17.

Lehnert

Heider

Leicht

Heinrich

Corrieri

Luppa

. . . König

H. H.

(2011). Health care utilization and costs of elderly persons with multiple chronic conditions. Medical Care Research and Review, 68, 387–420.

18.

Marmot

Ryff

C. D.

Bumpass

L. L.

Shipley

Marks

N. F.

(1997). Social inequalities in health: Next questions and converging evidence. Social Science & Medicine, 44, 901–910.

19.

McEwen

BS.

(2006). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators: Central role of the brain. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 8, 367–381.

20.

Mroczek

D. K.

Stawski

R. S.

Turiano

N. A.

Chan

Almeida

D. M.

Neupert

S. D.

Spiro

III . (2015). Emotional reactivity and mortality: Longitudinal findings from the VA Normative Aging Study. The Journals of Gerontology B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 70, 398–406.

21.

Panaite

Salomon

Jin

Rottenberg

(2015). Cardiovascular recovery from psychological and physiological challenge and risk for adverse cardiovascular outcomes and all-cause mortality. Psychosomatic Medicine, 77, 215–226.

22.

Piazza

J. R.

Charles

S. T.

Sliwinski

M. J.

Mogle

Almeida

D. M.

(2013). Affective reactivity to daily stressors and long-term risk of reporting a chronic physical health condition. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 45, 110–120.

23.

Thomsen

D. K.

Mehlsen

M. Y.

Christensen

Zachariae

(2003). Rumination—Relationship with negative mood and sleep quality. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 1293–1301.

24.

Thomsen

D. K.

Mehlsen

M. Y.

Olesen

Hokland

Viidik

Avlund

Zachariae

(2004). Is there an association between rumination and self-reported physical health? A one-year follow-up in a young and an elderly sample. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 27, 215–231.

25.

Watson

Pennebaker

J. W.

(1989). Health complaints, stress, and distress: Exploring the central role of negative affectivity. Psychological Review, 96, 234–254.

26.

Waugh

C. E.

Panage

Mendes

W. B.

Gotlib

I. H.

(2010). Cardiovascular and affective recovery from anticipatory threat. Biological Psychology, 84, 169–175.

27.

Wolff

J. L.

Starfield

Anderson

(2002). Prevalence, expenditures, and complications of multiple chronic conditions in the elderly. Archives of Internal Medicine, 162, 2269–2276. doi:10.1001/archinte.162.20.2269

28.

Zoccola

P. M.

Dickerson

S. S.

(2012). Assessing the relationship between rumination and cortisol: A review. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 73, 1–9.

29.

Zohar

(1999). When things go wrong: The effect of daily work hassles on effort, exertion and negative mood. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72, 265–283.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.60 MB

Let It Go: Lingering Negative Affect in Response to Daily Stressors Is Associated With Physical Health Years Later

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material