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Published on: February 2, 2017
Coping with daily stress: differential role of spiritual experience on daily positive and negative affect
Brenda R Whitehead1, Cindy S Bergeman
1Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. bjackso7@nd.edu
Objectives:
On the global-level, spiritual experiences have been shown to buffer against the negative effects of stress on well-being for older adults, but this global-level analysis may not reflect the day-to-day processes at work. The present project uses a daily paradigm to examine the potential moderating effect of everyday spiritual experience (ESE) on the deleterious impact of a given day's perceived stress (PS) on that day's positive and negative affect (PA/NA).
Method:
Participants were 244 older adults aged 55-80 years who completed daily assessments for up to 56 days.
Results:
Results partially support the moderating hypothesis: ESE buffered the negative effect of PS on same-day NA but had a positive direct effect on same-day PA.
Discussion:
These results point to a differential function of ESE-that it serves a coping function for NA but enhances PA directly-in the day-to-day lives of older adults, shedding light on the nuanced role of religiousness and spirituality when it comes to coping with daily stress.
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