Poster #63 - The Role of Daily Negative Emotions in Interpersonal Stress Generation in Adolescence

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Introduction: The stress generation hypothesis postulates that an individual’s characteristics and behaviors actively contribute to the extent to which he/she experiences stressful events (Hammen, 1991). Both depressed and anxious individuals tend to experience more stressful events than non-depressed/non-anxious individuals, and these findings have been replicated in both adults and adolescents (e.g., Hammen, 1991; Rudolph & Hammen, 1999; Rudolph et al., 2000; Uliaszek et al., 2012). Although negative affect is a defining feature of both depression and anxiety (e.g. Watson et al., 1988), there is a dearth of research on the relation between negative affect itself and stress generation. The goal of this study was to examine the relation between negative affect and stress generation in adolescents using a daily diary approach.

Method: Participants included 144 adolescents (79 female) with an average age of 13.53 years (SD = 1.32). Parents reported participants’ race/ethnicity as 60% European American, 12% African American, 11% Latino American, 9% Asian American, and 8% of mixed race or ethnicity.
Participants completed 12 consecutive electronic daily diaries including measures of daily negative emotion and daily interpersonal stress. Daily negative emotion was assessed using the Negative Affect subscale of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C; Huebner & Dew, 1995; mean = 1.32; SD = 0.52). Daily interpersonal stress was assessed by having adolescents indicate the presence or absence of a negative event that day in each of three interpersonal domains (friends, romantic, family); if a negative event occurred, adolescents then rated the significance of that event on a scale from 1 (not a big deal) to 5 (a really big deal). An aggregate daily interpersonal stress variable was computed by summing these significance ratings across the three domains (mean = 0.68; SD = 1.63).

Results: Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), we examined whether negative affect on one day predicted interpersonal stress the next day. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to account for the nested structure of the data (days within participants). A random intercept was included in the model, gender was included as a between-subjects covariate, and time, school attendance (0 = did not attend school; 1 = attended school), and the previous day’s interpersonal stress were included in the model as within-subjects covariates. Negative affect on one day positively predicted the next day’s interpersonal stress, even after controlling for the previous day’s interpersonal stress (see Table 1).

Discussion: These findings establish the importance of negative affect in understanding stressful interpersonal events during adolescence and suggest that negative affect specifically contributes to interpersonal stress generation. Results will be discussed in terms of possible avenues for intervention for adolescents who suffer from depression or anxiety.

Authors

• Cassidy L Tennity, West Chester University
  Presenting Author

• Fanny Mlawer, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie A. Hubbard, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christina Moore, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Megan K Bookhout, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author