Affective reactivity to daily stressors and immune cell gene expression in the MIDUS study.

Affective reactivity to stress is a person-level measurement of how well an individual copes with daily stressors. A common method of measuring affective reactivity entails the estimation of within-person differences of either positive or negative affect on days with and without stressors present. Individuals more reactive to common stressors, as evidenced by affective reactivity measurements, have been shown to have increased levels of circulating pro-inflammatory markers. While affective reactivity has previously been associated with inflammatory markers, the upstream mechanistic links underlying these associations are unknown. Using data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Refresher study (N = 195; 52% female; 84% white), we quantified daily stress processes over 10 days and determined individuals' positive and negative affective reactivities to stressors. We then examined affective reactivity association with peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) gene expression of the immune-related conserved transcriptional response to adversity. Results indicated that individuals with a greater decrease in positive affect to daily stressors exhibited heightened PBMC JUNB expression after Bonferroni corrections (p-adjusted < 0.05). JUNB encodes a protein that acts as a transcription factor which regulates many aspects of the immune response, including inflammation and cell proliferation. Due to its critical role in the activation of macrophages and maintenance of CD4+ T-cells during inflammation, JUNB may serve as a potential upstream mechanistic target for future studies of the connection between affective reactivity and inflammatory processes. Overall, our findings provide evidence that affective reactivity to stress is associated with levels of immune cell gene expression.

COVID-19 distress and interdependence of daily emotional intimacy, physical intimacy, and loneliness in cohabiting couples.

Introduction: COVID-19 has had a profound impact on relationship functioning, though effects have been heterogeneous. Reasons for divergent effects on relationship functioning remain unclear. Theoretical models suggest that it is not just stress exposure that leads to adverse relationships outcomes, but also subjective response to these stressors. Using data from a 14-day intensive longitudinal study of romantic dyads, we hypothesized that COVID-19-related distress would adversely impact one's own and one's partner's report of relationship functioning, on average. Interdependence at the between-couple and within-couple level was also examined. Methods: Participants were 104 female-male romantic couples cohabiting the New York metropolitan area (Mage = 28.86, SDage = 7.69) between August 2020 - April 2021. Couples reported COVID-19 distress during a baseline interview and daily relationship functioning for 14 days. Multilevel models were specified for six outcomes simultaneously: female and male partner daily physical intimacy, emotional intimacy, and loneliness. Interrelationships of the intercepts of the six outcomes were specified, reflecting between-couple associations of each partner's stable outcome tendencies. Interrelationships of the daily residuals of the six outcomes were also specified, reflecting within-couple associations at the daily level. Results: Female partner COVID-19 distress was inversely associated with her own emotional and physical intimacy and positively associated with her own and her partner's loneliness. Male COVID-19 distress was associated with his own loneliness only. There was significant interdependence at the between- and within-couple level, such that greater loneliness in either partner was associated with less intimacy in each member of the couple. Discussion: Only one partner effect for COVID-19 distress emerged, such that female partner distress was associated with male partner loneliness; however, interdependence at the between- and within-couple level suggested that distress may adversely impact relational well-being over time. Future studies should examine reciprocal relationships between COVID-19-related distress and relationship functioning.

The importance of having fun: Daily play among adults with type 1 diabetes.

Although play has been linked to psychological and physical well-being in childhood, little work has examined benefits of play in adulthood. Play may be especially important in the context of coping with a chronic illness such as type 1 diabetes as self-care involves a difficult daily process. We hypothesized that daily play with one's romantic partner would be linked to better mood, greater diabetes disclosure, greater support receipt, greater perceived coping effectiveness with one's most important daily stressors, and better self-care regarding type 1 diabetes. We examined these hypotheses in a sample of 199 adults with type 1 diabetes. Participants completed daily diary measures of play with their partner and proposed outcomes for 14 days. Daily play was linked to better mood, greater diabetes disclosure to one's partner, greater support received from one's partner, and greater perceived coping effectiveness with the day's most important diabetes and general stressors. However, daily play was unrelated to self-care. Mediation analyses further indicated that positive mood explained links from daily play to perceived coping effectiveness, and diabetes disclosure explained links from daily play to support. These findings indicate that having fun with one's partner may have important psychological and relationship benefits for individuals with chronic illness. More work needs to be conducted to examine links from daily play to self-care. Implications are discussed.

Twelve Steps, Two Factors: Coping Strategies Moderate the Association Between Craving and Daily 12-Step Use in a College Recovery Community.

BACKGROUND: Affiliating with 12-step groups appears to reduce relapse risk. By relying on between-person designs, extant research has been unable to examine daily mechanisms through which 12-step group affiliation contributes to recovery. OBJECTIVES: To examine the daily use and factor structure of the 12 steps and intrapersonal predictors and moderators of 12-step use. To determine whether the 12 steps were used in response to daily craving and, if so, which steps and in what contexts. METHODS: Data comprised 1304 end-of-day diary data entries from 55 young adults collected in 2008 from members of a college recovery community, combined with person-level baseline measures. Exploratory factor analysis examined the factor structure, and multi-level models examined both day-level and person-level predictors and moderators of step use, including meeting attendance, drug and alcohol dependence, social support, and coping strategies. RESULTS: Analyses produced two factors: Everyday steps, comprising surrender and maintenance steps, and action steps. Moderation analyses revealed that only action steps were significantly associated with craving, suggesting that craving can spur their use, but only among individuals pursuing certain general strategies for coping with stress: Separate median-split models produced significant associations between craving and action steps only among individuals high in avoidance, high in support-seeking, and/or low in problem-solving. Conclusions/Importance: This is the first study to empirically discern a 2-factor structure underlying the 12 steps, and to show that the two sets of steps are used in different contexts. The study also illustrates the value of person-centered approaches to recovery research and practice.

Daily Exercise and Alcohol Use Among Young Adult College Students.

The present study examined associations between exercise and alcohol use at the between- and within-person levels, including temporal sequencing and the impact of gender. Participants were 221 college students that completed an online survey and 14 daily surveys assessing their daily exercise and alcohol use. Individuals who reported higher exercise scores also consumed more alcohol, on average. On days when individuals reported consuming fewer drinks than usual, they also reported greater exercise scores. Individuals reported lower exercise scores following a day with heavier alcohol use than usual or a day with heavy episodic drinking. Exercise was unassociated with next-day alcohol use. There were mixed findings on the impact of gender. Exercise may have a more proximal influence on drinking. Exercise interventions for alcohol use could target days with higher probabilities of drinking to reduce levels of alcohol use among college students.

Relationship satisfaction moderates links between poor sleep quality and psychological distress among couples coping with type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVES: We examined links between sleep quality and psychological distress among couples dealing with type 1 diabetes (T1D) across cross-sectional and daily diary methods and investigated whether relationship satisfaction moderated these associations. METHODS: 199 persons with T1D and their spouses completed survey questionnaires reporting their own sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and relationship satisfaction. They also completed 14-day diaries reporting their own sleep quality and negative affect. Multi-level actor-partner interdependence models examined associations between sleep quality and psychological distress. RESULTS: Cross-sectional and daily diary data revealed an association between poorer sleep quality and higher psychological distress for both persons with T1D and their spouses (ie, actor effects). Some partner effects were found. For example, poorer sleep quality of persons with T1D was associated with greater negative affect for spouses (within persons). Relationship satisfaction moderated the effects of sleep quality on psychological distress. For example, participants' poorer overall daily sleep quality was associated with greater negative affect for those with lower relationship satisfaction but not for those with higher relationship satisfaction (ie, actor effects). In contrast, partners' poorer overall daily sleep quality was associated with participants' greater negative affect for those with higher relationship satisfaction but not for those with lower relationship satisfaction (ie, partner-effects). CONCLUSION: Links between sleep quality and psychological distress occur both within and between persons. Relationship satisfaction moderates the effect of poorer sleep quality on psychological distress in a nuanced way.

Impact of Flexible Work Arrangements, Self-Efficacy, and Barriers on Daily Physical Activity Among University Staff.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the link between flexible work arrangements and health behaviors, such as physical activity. This study aimed to explore how self-efficacy and daily barriers to physical activity influence daily levels of physical activity on workdays when university staff members used a flexible work arrangement (flextime or telework). METHODS: Full-time university staff employees (N = 61, mean age = 41; 89% female) participated in this daily diary study. Participants completed an initial survey followed by daily surveys over the course of one workweek, resulting in 281 diary days. RESULTS: The most frequently reported barriers to physical activity were as follows: lack of time, feeling tired, and not enough motivation. Multilevel models revealed that as the number of barriers increased, minutes of physical activity significantly decreased. Self-efficacy was not significantly related to daily physical activity. Participants reported fewer minutes of physical activity on flextime workdays compared to days when a flexible work arrangement was not used (ie, traditional workday). Daily use of a flexible work arrangement did not moderate the association between barriers and physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrated the influence of daily barriers and flextime workdays on physical activity levels, which can inform workplace health programs for university staff.

Optimising daily diary questionnaires about fatigue, psychological flexibility and well-being: perspectives of people with rheumatic disease.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to understand the perspectives of people with rheumatic disease have about completing a pilot daily diary questionnaire on fatigue and well-being, with the objective of incorporating these perspectives into future daily studies. METHODS: Twenty-two participants with experience of rheumatic disease-related fatigue attended a focus group and/or an individual interview. Before the focus group or interview, participants completed a one-off quantitative diary about their fatigue and well-being that day. In the focus groups and interviews, participants were asked about their experience completing the questionnaire. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three themes were identified. 'Concerns about Misinterpretation and Ambiguity' addressed the elements of the diary questionnaire that were confusing or unclear to participants. 'Desire to Provide Useful and Accurate Information' outlined participants' uncertainty about how to report complex daily experiences. 'Gaining Personal Insight through Diaries' revealed the personal benefits participants gained, particularly the development of insight into their fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: People with rheumatic disease are willing to complete a daily diary questionnaire, but emphasise it is important for diary questionnaires to have clear instructions, questionnaire items and response scales. Addressing these concerns will ensure the reliability and validity of quantitative diary data.

Relationship Tensions and Mood: Adult Children's Daily Experience of Aging Parents' Stubbornness.

This study examined middle-aged individuals' reports of parents' behaviors commonly attributed to stubbornness. Middle-aged adults (N = 192) completed a 7-day diary reporting their mood and how often they felt their parents (N = 254) engaged in behaviors often described as 'stubbornness' (insistent or risky). Thirty-one percent of middle-aged children reported insistent behaviors and 17% reported risky behaviors by their parent(s). Daily reports of parent behaviors attributed to stubbornness were positively associated with parent-child relationship quality, parent functional limitations, and child neuroticism. Reports of perceived parent insistent behaviors were also associated with greater daily negative mood among adult children. Findings highlight the impact of adult children's daily perceptions of parent behaviors commonly attributed to stubbornness on the individual and relationship.

Covariation in couples' nightly sleep and gender differences.

OBJECTIVES: For most partnered adults, sleep is not an individual-level behavior-it is a shared health behavior with a partner. This study examined whether perceived nightly sleep duration and sleep quality covaried within couples and whether the unique influence of partner sleep on individual sleep differed by gender. DESIGN: Eight consecutive days of diary data. PARTICIPANTS: US hotel employees and their spouses/partners (N=76 from 38 couples, 600 daily observations). MEASUREMENTS: Each day, couples separately reported their previous night's sleep duration (in hours) and sleep quality (1=very unsatisfactory to 5=very satisfactory). Analyses adjusted for sociodemographic, family, work, and day-level characteristics. RESULTS: Dyadic multilevel modeling revealed positive covariation in nightly sleep duration within couples. After controlling for the effects of contextual covariates, partner influence on individual sleep duration was more apparent in men's sleep. When a female's sleep duration was longer or shorter than usual, their male partner's sleep duration was also longer or shorter than usual, respectively. However, a female's sleep was not significantly predicted by her male partner's sleep duration after taking into account the effects of her sleep on the male partner's sleep and contextual covariates. Sleep quality covaried on average across days between partners, and this association did not differ by gender. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate positive covariation in sleep duration and sleep quality within couples. Couples' sleep duration covaried night-to-night, and their sleep quality covaried on average across days. A male's sleep duration is predicted by the female partner's sleep duration but not vice versa. Future research should examine health consequences of couple sleep covariation.

Corrigendum: The Role of Personality Traits in Young Adult Fruit and Vegetable Consumption.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00119.].

Emotional reactivity to daily events in youth with anxiety disorders.

BACKGROUND: Although research supports associations between anxiety and emotional reactivity in adults (Cisler, J. M., Olatunji, B. O., Feldner, M. T., & Forsyth, J. P. (2010). Emotion regulation and the anxiety disorders: an integrative review. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 32(1), 68-82.), few studies have examined emotional reactivity in anxious youth (e.g., Carthy et al., 2010; Tan, P. Z., Forbes, E. E., Dahl, R. E., Ryan, N. D., Siegle, G. J., Ladouceur, C. D., & Silk, J. S. (2012). Emotional reactivity and regulation in anxious and nonanxious youth: a cell-phone ecological momentary assessment study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(2), 197-206.). METHODS: Using daily diary methodology, this study examined both negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA) reactivity to daily events in youth diagnosed with anxiety (N = 68; 60% female; 78% non-Hispanic White; M age = 11.18 years, SD = 3.17). We also examined whether parent-reported emotion regulation would predict emotional reactivity. RESULTS: Participants reported more NA on days they experienced more negative parent and teacher events and less PA on days that they experienced more negative peer events. Additionally, better emotion regulation was associated with less NA reactivity to negative teacher events and to both negative and positive academic events. CONCLUSIONS: Interpersonal events have a salient effect on daily affect for anxious youth. Youth anxiety therapists should target emotion regulation associated with negative events involving adults and address barriers to developing and maintaining positive peer relationships.

The Role of Personality Traits in Young Adult Fruit and Vegetable Consumption.

This project investigated how individual differences in the big-five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) predicted plant-food consumption in young adults. A total of 1073 participants from two samples of young adults aged 17-25 reported their daily servings of fruits, vegetables, and two unhealthy foods for comparison purposes using an Internet daily diary for 21 or 13 days (micro-longitudinal, correlational design). Participants also completed the Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) measure of personality, and demographic covariates including gender, age, ethnicity, and body mass index (BMI). Analyses used hierarchical regression to predict average daily fruit and vegetable consumption as separate dependent variables from the demographic covariates (step 1) and the five personality traits (step 2). Results showed that young adults higher in openness and extraversion, and to some extent conscientiousness, ate more fruits and vegetables than their less open, less extraverted, and less conscientious peers. Neuroticism and agreeableness were unrelated to fruit and vegetable consumption. These associations were unique to eating fruit and vegetables and mostly did not extend to unhealthy foods tested. Young adult women also ate more fruit and vegetables than young adult men. Results suggest that traits associated with greater intellect, curiosity, and social engagement (openness and extraversion), and to a lesser extent, discipline (conscientiousness) are associated with greater plant-food consumption in this population. Findings reinforce the importance of personality in establishing healthy dietary habits in young adulthood that could translate into better health outcomes later in life.

Children's diurnal cortisol responses to negative events at school and home.

This study examined the within-and between-person associations between daily negative events - peer problems, academic problems and interparental conflict - and diurnal cortisol in school-age children. Salivary cortisol levels were assessed four times per day (at wakeup, 30min later, just before dinner and at bedtime) on eight days in 47 youths ages 8-13 years old (60% female; M age=11.28, SD=1.50). The relative contributions of within- and between-person variances in each stressor were estimated in models predicting same-day diurnal cortisol slope, same-day bedtime cortisol, and next morning wakeup cortisol. Children who reported more peer problems on average showed flatter slopes of cortisol decline from wakeup to bedtime. However, children secreted more cortisol at wakeup following days when they had reported more peer or academic problems than usual. Interparental conflict was not significantly associated with diurnal cortisol. Findings from this study extend our understanding of short-term cortisol responses to naturally occurring problems in daily life, and help to differentiate these daily processes from the cumulative effects of chronic stress.

Experiences With Parents and Youth Physical Health Symptoms and Cortisol: A Daily Diary Investigation.

Using daily diary data, this study examined the associations between positive and negative parent-youth experiences and youth cortisol and physical health symptoms among a sample of adolescents (N=132, Mean Age = 13.39). On days when girls reported more negative experiences than usual, they exhibited more physical health symptoms and flatter evening cortisol slopes than usual. Negative experiences with mothers were associated with higher dinner and bedtime youth cortisol levels (between-person). Daily positive experiences with fathers were linked with lower dinner cortisol levels. Youth with high levels of negative experiences, on average, were less sensitive to daily variation in negative experiences than youth who experienced lower parental negativity. We discuss the benefits of a daily diary approach.

Happy Marriage, Happy Life? Marital Quality and Subjective Well-Being in Later Life.

The authors examined associations between marital quality and both general life satisfaction and experienced (momentary) well-being among older husbands and wives, the relative importance of own versus spouse's marital appraisals for well-being, and the extent to which the association between own marital appraisals and well-being is moderated by spouse's appraisals. Data are from the 2009 Disability and Use of Time daily diary supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 722). One's own marital satisfaction is a sizable and significant correlate of life satisfaction and momentary happiness; associations do not differ significantly by gender. The authors did not find a significant association between spouse's marital appraisals and own well-being. However, the association between husband's marital quality and life satisfaction is buoyed when his wife also reports a happy marriage, yet flattened when his wife reports low marital quality. Implications for understanding marital dynamics and well-being in later life are discussed.