BACKGROUND Individuals' emotional responses to stressors in everyday life are associated with long-term physical and mental health. Among many possible risk factors, the stressor-related emotional responses may play an important role in future development of depressive symptoms. PURPOSE The current study examined how individuals' positive and negative emotional responses to everyday stressors predicted their subsequent changes in depressive symptoms over 18 months. METHODS Using an ecological momentary assessment approach, participants (n = 176) reported stressor exposure, positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA) five times a day for 1 week (n = 5,483 observations) and provided longitudinal reports of depressive symptoms over the subsequent 18 months. A multivariate multilevel latent growth curve model was used to directly link the fluctuations in emotions in response to momentary stressors in everyday life with the long-term trajectory of depressive symptoms. RESULTS Adults who demonstrated a greater difference in stressor-related PA (i.e., relatively lower PA on stressor vs. nonstressor moments) reported larger increases in depressive symptoms over 18 months. Those with greater NA responses to everyday stressors (i.e., relatively higher NA on stressor vs. nonstressor moments), however, did not exhibit differential long-term changes in depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Adults showed a pattern consistent with both PA and NA responses to stressors in everyday life, but only the stressor-related changes in PA (but not in NA) predicted the growth of depressive symptoms over time. These findings highlight the important-but often overlooked-role of positive emotional responses to everyday stressors in long-term mental health.

中文翻译：

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日常生活中对压力源的情绪反应可预测抑郁症状的长期轨迹。

背景技术个人对日常生活中压力源的情感反应与长期的身心健康有关。在许多可能的危险因素中，与压力相关的情绪反应可能在抑郁症状的未来发展中起重要作用。目的本研究调查了个人对日常压力的正面和负面情绪反应如何预测他们在18个月内抑郁症状的后续变化。方法采用生态瞬时评估方法，参与者（n = 176）报告压力暴露，正向影响（PA）和负向影响（NA），连续五天，连续1周（n = 5,483观察），并提供了抑郁症状的纵向报告在随后的18个月中。使用多变量多级潜伏增长曲线模型将日常生活中瞬间压力源的情绪波动与抑郁症状的长期轨迹直接联系起来。结果显示，与压力源相关的PA差异较大的成年人（即，相对于非压力时刻的PA相对较低）报告了18个月内抑郁症状的增加幅度更大。那些对日常压力源NA响应较大的患者（即，相对于非压力源时刻，NA相对较高），并没有表现出长期的抑郁症状差异。结论成年人在日常生活中表现出与PA和NA对应激源的反应一致的模式，但是只有与应激源相关的PA变化（而非NA）可以预测抑郁症状随时间的增长。