Person and contextual features of daily stress reactivity: individual differences in relations of undesirable daily events with mood disturbance and chronic pain intensity

J Pers Soc Psychol. 1994 Feb;66(2):329-40. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.66.2.329.

Abstract

We examined the mood-related and pain-related consequences of daily stressors among 74 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis who supplied daily reports for 75 days. Meta-analyses of time series regression coefficients disclosed a significant same-day relation between events and mood but no consistent effects of events on same-day pain, next-day mood, or next-day pain. With distributional characteristics of the daily data controlled, Ss with more active inflammatory disease showed a greater positive relation of events with same-day and next-day pain, those with a recent history of more major life stressors showed a greater positive relation of events with next-day pain, and those with less social support showed a greater positive relation of events with next-day mood disturbance. Implications of these and other findings for theories of stress and adaptation and the methodological challenges of daily experience research are discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Arousal*
  • Arthritis, Rheumatoid / psychology*
  • Depression / psychology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Individuality*
  • Life Change Events
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Pain / psychology*
  • Pain Measurement
  • Personality Inventory
  • Sick Role
  • Social Support
  • Somatoform Disorders / psychology
  • Stress, Psychological / complications*