Abstract
Background
Major stressful life events are known to predict depression onset, but relatively few studies have examined the interplay of daily stress and negative affect, particularly in clinical samples. Preliminary research has been inconclusive whether only current depression is characterized by amplified emotional reactivity to stress, or whether these patterns are equally strong in those with any history of depression.
Methods
Twenty-three participants with current major depression, 38 with remitted depression, and 43 with no history of depression completed 2 weeks of ecological momentary assessment to examine reactivity to perceived stress, negative daily events, and interpersonal versus noninterpersonal daily events.
Results
Currently depressed individuals demonstrated greater reactivity (i.e. greater increases in negative affect) in response to daily perceived stress, relative to previously depressed and never depressed individuals. Furthermore, while previously and never depressed individuals exhibited equal reactivity to interpersonal and noninterpersonal stress, currently depressed participants were particularly sensitive to interpersonal negative events.
Conclusions
These microlongitudinal results extend prior longitudinal evidence of the critical role of interpersonal stress in the course of major depression. The findings emphasize the importance of cognitive interventions that target negative interpretations of daily events.
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Notes
The terms “stress reactivity” and “emotional reactivity” have been used similarly in previous literature. We adopt the term stress reactivity here to emphasize the study’s focus on emotional responses to external daily stressors, negative events or other daily stress.
The difference in group sample size was due to the prevalence of current MDD, relative to remitted MDD or no history of MDD, within the larger project’s specific window for study entry, the first year of college.
Although gender differences were not a primary focus of the study, gender was examined as a possible moderator of stress reactivity. Gender did not moderate reactivity to negative events, interpersonal negative events, or noninterpersonal negative events, all ps > .145. Women did experience greater intensification of NA as perceived stress level increased, t(100) = 2.37, p = .020.
All stress reactivity models were re-analyzed to control for gender and baseline anxiety symptoms. There were no changes in the statistical significance of group differences in reactivity to perceived stress, to all negative events, to interpersonal events, or to noninterpersonal events. The only change in moderation results was that, compared with those with no history of depression, participants with current depression were no longer significantly more reactive to interpersonal versus noninterpersonal events, t(97) = 1.86, p = .067.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by Colby College Social Science Grant 01.2215. The authors express their appreciation to Rhiannon Archer, Jessica Blais, Shelley Kind, Monica Li, Kira Novak, Kelsey Park, Mariah Smith-Dutton, Stephanie Sienkiewicz, and Meredith Zakon who assisted in data collection.
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Erin S. Sheets and Michael F. Armey declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
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Sheets, E.S., Armey, M.F. Daily Interpersonal and Noninterpersonal Stress Reactivity in Current and Remitted Depression. Cogn Ther Res 44, 774–787 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10096-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10096-2