Age differences in emotional responses to daily stress: The role of timing, severity, and global perceived stress.

Scott, Stacey B.; Sliwinski, Martin J.; Blanchard‐Fields, Fredda

doi:10.1037/a0034000

Cited by 108 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…First, the findings may not readily generalise to other studies because the sample was limited to healthy young adults. In addition to age-related differences in the basal activity and responsivity of stress systems (Seals and Dinenno, 2004; Scott et al, 2013; Hidalgo et al, 2014), personality characteristics may also change across the lifespan (Allemand et al, 2008). Thus, it is feasible that relationships between personality and stress responses may also differ in older adults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality traits modulate emotional and physiological responses to stress

Childs

White

Wit

2014

Behavioural Pharmacology

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An individual’s susceptibility to psychological and physical disorders associated with chronic stress exposure e.g., cardiovascular and infectious disease, may also be predicted by their reactivity to acute stress. One factor associated with both stress resilience and health outcomes is personality. An understanding of how personality influences responses to acute stress may shed light upon individual differences in susceptibility to chronic stress-linked disease. This study examined relationships between personality and acute responses to stress in 125 healthy adults, using hierarchical linear regression. We assessed personality traits using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ-BF), and responses to acute stress (cortisol, heart rate, blood pressure, mood) using a standardised laboratory psychosocial stress task, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Individuals with high Negative Emotionality exhibited greater emotional distress and lower blood pressure responses to the TSST. Individuals with high Agentic Positive Emotionality exhibited prolonged heart rate responses to stress, whereas those with high Communal Positive Emotionality exhibited smaller cortisol and blood pressure responses. Separate personality traits differentially predicted emotional, cardiovascular, and cortisol responses to a psychosocial stressor in healthy volunteers. Future research investigating the association of personality with chronic stress-related disease may provide further clues to the relationship between acute stress reactivity and susceptibility to disease.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality traits modulate emotional and physiological responses to stress

Childs

White

Wit

2014

Behavioural Pharmacology

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“…The study was ethics approved by the Georgia Institute of Technology Institutional Review Board. See Scott et al [30] for more details about the study sample and procedures.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current study aimed to thoroughly investigate dynamic associations between momentary solitude, affect, and markers of HPA axis activity, as well as age differences therein, using up to five repeated daily life assessments (‘time sampling') each day over a period of 10 consecutive days from a sample of 185 adults aged 20-81 years [see [24,30]]. Affect items were chosen to capture differences in both valence and arousal, allowing for the possibility that solitude-affect associations might be more visible with regard to low arousal affective states [3,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How We Experience Being Alone: Age Differences in Affective and Biological Correlates of Momentary Solitude

et al. 2016

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Background: Spending time alone constitutes a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives. As we get older, alone time increases. Less is known, however, about age differences in the experience of spending time alone (momentary solitude). Objectives: We examined time-varying associations between momentary solitude, affect quality, and two hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity markers [salivary cortisol; dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAs)] to better understand the affective and biological correlates of momentary solitude across the adult life span. Method: A total of 185 adults aged 20-81 years (mean age = 49 years, 51% female, 74% Caucasian) completed questionnaires on momentary solitude (alone vs. not alone) and current affect on a handheld device, and provided concurrent saliva samples up to seven times a day for 10 consecutive days. Data were analyzed using multilevel models, controlling for the overall amount of time participants spent alone during the study (overall solitude). Results: Greater overall solitude was associated with decreased average high arousal positive affect and increased average cortisol and DHEAs levels. Momentary solitude was associated with reduced high arousal positive affect, increased low arousal positive affect, and increased low arousal negative affect. Age by momentary solitude interactions indicate that greater age was associated with increased high arousal positive affect and reduced low arousal negative affect during momentary solitude. Furthermore, momentary solitude was associated with increased cortisol and DHEAs. With greater age, the association between momentary solitude and cortisol weakened. Conclusion: Consistent with the negative connotations to loneliness and objective social isolation, greater overall solitude was associated with negative affective and biological correlates. Spending a large overall amount of time alone in old age might thus have negative ramifications for health and well-being. Momentary solitude, in contrast, can be a double-edged sword as evidenced by both positive and negative well-being implications. Importantly, greater age is linked to more favorable affective and biological correlates of momentary solitude. The momentary state of spending time alone is thus an experience that is not necessarily negative and that may improve with aging.

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“…As with other theories that make predictions about age patterns in well-being related to events (Charles, 2010), the exact time frame over which these patterns will be observed has not yet been established (see Scott, Sliwinski, & Blanchard-Fields, 2013). In order to fully test TP predictions, future studies should incorporate more frequent assessments necessary for examining lagged effects that would allow testing whether increases in TP precede changes in well-being over time.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, although tens of thousands of individuals directly witnessed the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks, millions more viewed them and their aftermath via the media, constituting an indirect form of exposure to adversity. In fact early media exposure to collective traumas is positively associated with traumarelated acute stress (Holman, Garfin, Silver, 2014;Silver et al, 2013) -a construct that includes distorted time perceptions as core symptoms. This raises the possibility that extensive trauma-ADVERSITY, TIME, AND WELL-BEING 8 related media exposure might promote temporal disintegration, with implications for TP and well-being over time.…”

Section: Exposure To Adversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adversity, time, and well-being: A longitudinal analysis of time perspective in adulthood.

Holman¹,

Silver²,

Mogle³

et al. 2016

Psychology and Aging

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Despite the prominence of time in influential aging theories and the ubiquity of stress across the lifespan, research addressing how time perspective (TP) and adversity are associated with wellbeing across adulthood is rare. Examining the role of TP in coping with life events over the lifespan would be best accomplished after large-scale population-based exposure to a specific event, with repeated assessments to examine within-and between-person differences over time.A national sample aged 18-91 years (N = 722, M = 49.4 years) was followed for three years after the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks. Respondents completed assessments of 9/11-related television exposure 9-21 days after the attacks, temporal disintegration 2 months post-9/11, and TP, ongoing stress, and well-being at 12, 24, and 36 months post-9/11. Results provided support for measurement invariance of TP across time and across age. Early 9/11-related television exposure was significantly associated with greater temporal disintegration.Temporal disintegration and ongoing stress, in turn, were associated with between-and withinperson variation in past TP. This effect was qualified by an age interaction that indicated a stronger relationship between ongoing stress and past TP for younger compared with older adults. Past and future TP were significantly and independently related to individual differences and within-person variation in psychological well-being, regardless of age. Future work should incorporate adversity as an important correlate of TP across adulthood. The window of time allows us to see our life stories unfold, build our identity, identify future ambitions, and feel proud of our successes. Our sense of time connects who we have been with who we are and who we aspire to be. Indeed, scholars have argued that our experience of time provides a foundation for the emergence of conscious thought and behavior (James, 1890;Kelly, 1955;Lewin, 1942); without time our lives would consist of isolated, incoherent moments lacking the essential consciousness that makes us human. By assigning life experiences to time frames of past, present, and future, we gain a broader perspective that helps us make sense of our lives (see Zimbardo & Boyd, 2008).

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Age differences in emotional responses to daily stress: The role of timing, severity, and global perceived stress.

Cited by 108 publications

References 48 publications

Personality traits modulate emotional and physiological responses to stress

Personality traits modulate emotional and physiological responses to stress

How We Experience Being Alone: Age Differences in Affective and Biological Correlates of Momentary Solitude

Adversity, time, and well-being: A longitudinal analysis of time perspective in adulthood.

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