scholarly journals Negative Emotion Differentiation Attenuates the Within-Person Indirect Effect of Daily Stress on Nightly Sleep Quality Through Calmness

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Lischetzke ◽  
Lea Schemer ◽  
Julia A. Glombiewski ◽  
Tina In-Albon ◽  
Julia Karbach ◽  
...  

The ability to differentiate between negative emotional states [negative emotion differentiation (NED)] has been conceptualized as a trait that facilitates effective emotion regulation and buffers stress reactivity. In the present research, we investigated the role of NED in within-person processes of daily affect regulation and coping during times of stress (the first COVID-19-related pandemic lockdown in April 2020). Using intensive longitudinal data, we analyzed whether daily stress had an indirect effect on sleep quality through calmness in the evening, and we tested whether NED moderated this within-person indirect effect by buffering the link between daily stress and calmness in the evening. A non-representative community sample (n = 313, 15–82 years old) participated in a 21-day ambulatory assessment with twice-daily surveys. The results of multilevel mediation models showed that higher daily stress was related to within-day change in calmness from morning to evening, resulting in less calmness in the evening within persons. Less calmness in the evening, in turn, was related to poorer nightly sleep quality within persons. As expected, higher NED predicted a less negative within-person link between daily stress and calmness in the evening, thereby attenuating the indirect effect of daily stress on nightly sleep quality through calmness. This effect held when we controlled for mean negative emotions and depression. The results provide support for a diathesis-stress model of NED, and hence, for NED as a protective factor that helps to explain why some individuals remain more resilient during times of stress than others.

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-194
Author(s):  
Jessica Elise Beilharz ◽  
Marlee Paterson ◽  
Scott Fatt ◽  
Chloe Wilson ◽  
Alexander Burton ◽  
...  

Objective: Given the fundamental emotional, social and physical development that occurs during the early years of life, childhood experiences are formative in shaping a person’s life trajectory. Childhood trauma is a prevalent, multifaceted issue with well-documented long-term adverse health effects in clinical populations however; the impact of childhood trauma in the community is less clear. To address this, this study investigated how childhood trauma may impact physical and psychological health, sleep quality and autonomic function in a non-clinical community sample of adults. Method: Participants completed questionnaires, an in-laboratory autonomic assessment (including stress reactivity to mental and physical stressors) and overnight autonomic and sleep monitoring. Overall childhood trauma and its subtypes (e.g. physical abuse, emotional neglect) were defined using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Results: We identified 22 childhood trauma cases (total score > 36) and, of the 89 non-childhood trauma cases, some individuals also experienced significant levels of trauma in one or more of the childhood trauma subtypes. Childhood trauma and some trauma subtypes were significantly correlated with a myriad of negative physiological and physical health outcomes including elevated psychological distress, increased sleep disturbances, reduced emotional wellbeing and lower perceived social support. Autonomic dysregulation was found in those with high levels of childhood trauma, which was reflected in an increased stress response to laboratory tasks. Notably, the experience of physical abuse in childhood was significantly associated with alterations in nocturnal heart rate and heart rate variability. Conclusion: Together, these results highlight that childhood trauma can have lasting detrimental consequences on an individual’s emotional and physical health, sleep quality and stress reactivity.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. H. Stanley Seah ◽  
Shaima Almahmoud ◽  
Karin G. Coifman

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that results in lower quality of life. Medication adherence is important for reducing relapse, disease progression, and MS-related symptoms, particularly during the early stages of MS. However, adherence may be impacted by negative emotional states. Therefore, it is important to identify protective factors. Past research suggests that the ability to discriminate between negative emotional states, also known as negative emotion differentiation (NED), may be protective against enactment of maladaptive risk-related behaviors. However, less is known as to how NED may promote adaptive health behaviors such as medication adherence. Utilizing weekly diaries, we investigated whether NED moderates the association between negative affect and medication adherence rates across 58 weeks among patients (n = 27) newly diagnosed with MS (following McDonald criteria). Results revealed that NED significantly moderated the relationship between negative affect and medication adherence. Specifically, greater negative affect was associated with lower adherence only for individuals reporting low NED. However, this link disappeared for those reporting moderate to high NED. Building upon past research, our findings suggest that NED may promote adaptive health behaviors and have important clinical implications for the treatment and management of chronic illness.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 607
Author(s):  
Noelia Miguez-Torres ◽  
Alejandro Martínez-Rodríguez ◽  
María Martínez-Olcina ◽  
Laura Miralles-Amorós ◽  
Cristina Reche-García

Nurses have long working hours with high psychological burdens. In addition, in the emergency department, nurses are required to quickly adapt emotionally. The aim of this study was to describe and relate emotional intelligence (EI) skills of emergency nurses, their body mass index (BMI) and sleep quality. For this purpose, a cross-sectional was carried out in which the perceived emotional intelligence test and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index were applied. Sixty-two emergency nurses (48 women and 14 men) participated. The results indicated that the majority of them present adequate levels of EI, with no differences by gender. Younger nurses showed a better ability to feel, express and understand emotional states than the older ones, while the ability to regulate emotional states occurred in the opposite way. Nurses who have been working for several years showed a better ability to regulate emotions than those with less experience. Those who were overweight grade II and obese type I expressed their feelings better, also the regulation of emotional states decreased as weight increased. Finally, it has been observed that the quality of sleep of emergency nurses is significantly altered, and that this lack of sleep may affect their ability to process emotions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 536-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Duriez ◽  
Theo A. Klimstra ◽  
Koen Luyckx ◽  
Wim Beyers ◽  
Bart Soenens

Because the authoritarian personality was introduced to explain the rise of fascism during World War II, research focused on its ability to predict prejudice, leaving its associations with well–being largely unexplored. Studies that did examine these associations yielded inconsistent results, and some authors even argued that authoritarianism buffers against the negative effects of psychological vulnerability factors (i.e. D–type personality) and negative life events on well–being, especially among people in an authoritarian environment. Using a cross–sectional community sample (N = 1010), Study 1 failed to support the idea that authoritarianism relates to depressive symptoms and buffers against the negative effects of D–type personality on depressive symptoms. Using a longitudinal college student sample (N = 499), Study 2 showed that authoritarianism did not moderate the effects of life events either and even predicted over–time increases in depressive symptoms. Using a longitudinal high school sample (N = 590), Study 3 showed that this effect emerged regardless of degree of fit with the social environment (i.e. with family and friends). Taken together, results suggest that authoritarianism constitutes a risk factor for rather than a protective factor against depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S496-S496
Author(s):  
A. Pozza ◽  
D. Dèttore

IntroductionPathological Skin Picking (SP) is a psychiatric condition with a 2–5%-prevalence in the community and consists of repetitive picking behaviours associated to marked distress, which can cause significant skin damage. Research has evidenced a Focused SP subtype, typically occurring in response to negative emotions, an Automatic subtype, occurring without awareness during activities not related to the picking behavior, and a Mixed one. Mindfulness skills have been studied as a protective factor involved in the treatment of several psychiatric disorders. Studying Mindfulness deficits in SP might help to identify interventions tailored for specific subtypes of SP behaviours.ObjectivesThe current study examined the relationship between Mindfulness skills and pathological SP behaviours.AimsThe study aimed to investigate whether Mindfulness skills deficits uniquely predicted SP subtypes behaviours after controlling for general distress in a community sample.MethodsNinety-seven community individuals (mean age = 39.71, SD = 16.37, 59% females) completed measures of SP, Mindfulness skills and general distress (anxiety and depression).ResultsLower Mindfulness skills of Describing Internal Experiences (B = −0.12, P < 0.05) and higher anxiety (B = 0.08, P < 0.05) predicted more severe Automatic SP. Lower Mindfulness skills of Non-judging Inner Experiences (B = −0.12, P < 0.05), higher anxiety (B = −0.12, P < 0.05) and higher depression (B = −0.12, P < 0.05) predicted more severe Mixed SP. Focused SP was not associated to Mindfulness skills and general distress.ConclusionsMindfulness skills deficits could be associated to Automatic and Mixed but not Focused SP. Future studies should investigate whether Mindfulness programs are effective for individuals reporting Automatic or Mixed SP behaviours.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik C Nook ◽  
John Coleman Flournoy ◽  
Alexandra M Rodman ◽  
Patrick Mair ◽  
Katie A McLaughlin

Exposure to stressful life events is strongly associated with internalizing psychopathology, and identifying factors that reduce vulnerability to stress-related internalizing problems is critical for development of early interventions. Drawing on research from affective science, we tested whether high emotion differentiation—the ability to specifically identify one’s feelings—buffers adolescents from developing internalizing symptoms when exposed to stress. Thirty adolescents completed a laboratory measure of emotion differentiation before an intensive year-long longitudinal study in which exposure to stress and internalizing problems were assessed at both the moment-level (n=4,921 experience sampling assessments) and monthly-level (n=355 monthly assessments). High negative and positive emotion differentiation attenuated moment-level coupling between perceived stress and feelings of depression, and high negative emotion differentiation eliminated monthly-level associations between stressful life events and anxiety symptoms. These results suggest that high emotion differentiation buffers adolescents against anxiety and depression in the face of stress, perhaps by facilitating adaptive emotion regulation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoj Kumar Sharma ◽  
David John Hallford ◽  
Nitin Anand

Background: The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS) is a widely used measure of negative emotional states. While the DASS is increasingly used in mental health research in India, to date no study has examined the factor structure among Indian adults. Methods: A large community sample of English-speaking Indian adults completed the DASS 21-item version, and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Results: The results indicated a good fit for a three factor (depression, anxiety, and stress) and a one-factor model (general psychological distress). There was no substantial difference between the fit of the models, and the DASS subscales were very strongly correlated with one another (r ≥ .80). Conclusion: The findings from this sample suggest that the DASS-21 items appear to assess general psychological distress, with little evidence that the items assess three distinct subscales.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 48

Sleep is defined as an easily reversible periodic state marked by the absence of wakefulness. Studies have shown that university students tend to have a diminished amount of sleep. This would lead to the loss of concentration, daytime sleepiness, and reduced academic performances. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of yoga on overall sleep quality, depression, anxiety, stress, and blood glucose levels. A total of 88 participants with 44 students in each group, control and experimental, were recruited from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman based on the outcome of the Godin Shephard questionnaire. A total score of less than 14 was considered mild hence falling into the control group while above 14 and had practiced yoga for a minimum of 6 weeks were placed in the experimental group. The participants were required to self-administer a set of questionnaires consisting of socio-demographic information, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire and Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scores. Three components of sleep, namely the habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, and daytime dysfunctions, were better in the experimental group compared to the control one. Depression, anxiety, stress, and blood glucose levels also appeared to be more desirable in the experimental group with yoga students. It was found that blood glucose levels were positively correlated to the Global PSQI score, depression, anxiety, and stress measures in this study. In conclusion, yoga-practicing students have healthier sleep patterns, negative emotional states, and blood glucose levels. In order to obtain more conclusive findings, similar studies should be carried out in different universities with larger sample size and for longer periods.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Zuro ◽  
Dino Krupic

Without the vaccine, only way to prevent the spread of coronavirus is following COVID-19 preventive guidelines such as keeping social distance, wearing masks and gloves, reducing mobility, etc. Success depends on how many individuals strictly follow the suggestions from epidemiologists. In this study we examine who and why is adhering with the guidelines. A community sample of 500 participants fulfilled short Big Five Inventory, Questionnaire of Approach and Avoidance Motivation (QAAM) and two scales constructed according to the COVID-19 epidemiological guidelines in Croatia. The results of hierarchical regression analysis indicate that agreeable and conscientious individuals are complying more with preventive measures. In addition, approach, not avoidance, motivation appears to be more important in following the guidelines. Results are discussed in terms of framing messages to explain goals that might be reached by compliant behaviour rather than emphasizing negative consequences of pandemic as such messages seem to produce negative emotional states with no beneficial changes on the behavioural level.


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