Findings highlight the use of dyadic diary methods and corresponding modeling to uncover the unique benefits of support provision that may sometimes occur outside the awareness of the recipient. Results are discussed in terms of conceptualizing the cancer experience in a shared interpersonal context, whereby patients and their spouses can both benefit from support as they adjust to cancer together.

We used a daily diary design to evaluate a daily model of stress generation that included both daily sadness and hostility as precipitants, and interpersonal competence as a moderator variable. Our results indicated that daily stress generation was precipitated by daily hostile, but not sad, mood. Participants' skill at initiating interactions influenced daily stress generation in an unexpected direction. Specifically, the positive daily relationship between hostility and dependent stress was stronger for those with higher initiation scores. The results suggest that stress generation at the daily level functions differently than stress generation involving major life events. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research on stress generation.

using a daily diary methodology, we assessed meaning-making processes and perceived positive changes in response to daily stressors. eighty-two undergraduates completed nightly surveys for seven consecutive days reporting on their worst event of the day. Participants' core belief disruption, rumination, and sense of resolution resulting from this worst event were assessed as predictors of daily reports of stress-related growth. the results of multilevel analyses indicated that daily growth was reported as a function of the significant Level-1 three-way interaction involving relatively high levels of daily core belief disruption, rumination, and resolution. further exploratory analyses revealed a significant four-way interaction that also included dispositional optimism (Level-2), such that the Level-1 three-way interaction was significant only for participants high on optimism. these findings are consistent with the meaning-making and growth literatures but extend relevant processes to the context of daily stressors.

We conducted a 10-day diary study that assessed daily stressors and end-of-day affect and self-esteem. We predicted that sociotropy would be associated with stronger sadness and self-esteem reactivity to daily interpersonal, but not achievement events, and that autonomy would be associated with the same pattern for daily achievement, but not interpersonal events. For the sample as whole, both daily interpersonal and achievement stressors were related to increased sadness and decreased self-esteem. As expected, the relationships involving interpersonal stressors were stronger for those high on sociotropy. However, the negative relationship between achievement stressors and self-esteem was also stronger for those high on sociotropy. Autonomy was associated with weaker self-esteem reactivity to interpersonal stressors. Our results are consistent with previous research on major life events, suggesting that sociotropy functions as a nonspecific vulnerability factor, and that autonomy's role is unclear. Our results also suggest the heuristic value of a daily diary design to study the mechanisms underlying vulnerability factors' role in the development and maintenance of depression.

His research program focuses on prevention and resiliency in urban youth, and school-based mental health services. Of primary interest is designing and evaluating culturally relevant and evidence-based psychosocial interventions in youth.