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Daily Stress, Coping, and Negative and Positive Affect in Depression: Complex Trigger and Maintenance Patterns
David M Dunkley1, Maxim Lewkowski1, Ihno A Lee2
1Lady Davis Institute - Jewish General Hospital, Montreal; McGill University.
Behavior Therapy
|April 10, 2017
Summary
Individuals with depression experiencing daily criticism often use avoidant coping, leading to increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions. Targeting these stress and coping patterns can reduce distress and build resilience.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Mental Health
Background:
- Major depressive disorder (MDD) involves emotional dysfunction, but daily mood fluctuations and their triggers remain unclear.
- Understanding the interplay between daily stressors, coping strategies, and affect is crucial for depression treatment.
- Perfectionism, particularly self-critical perfectionism, may influence how individuals with depression navigate daily life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate complex models explaining how daily stress and coping mechanisms trigger and sustain negative and positive affect in individuals with MDD.
- To identify specific stress appraisal and coping patterns associated with daily mood changes in depression.
- To explore the role of perfectionism in maintaining negative affect and reducing positive affect within daily depressive experiences.
Main Methods:
- Sixty-three patients diagnosed with MDD completed validated measures of perfectionism.
- Participants engaged in daily self-report questionnaires for seven consecutive days, assessing stress appraisals, coping strategies, and affective states.
- Multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) was employed to analyze the complex relationships between daily stressors, coping, affect, and perfectionism.
Main Results:
- Perceiving increased criticism correlated with higher avoidant coping, greater event stress, increased daily negative affect, and decreased daily positive affect in individuals with MDD.
- Increased daily positive affect was associated with higher perceived control, less avoidant coping, and greater use of problem-focused coping.
- Avoidant coping tendencies and persistent daily stress, especially in those with high self-critical perfectionism, significantly predicted the maintenance of daily negative affect and low positive affect.
Conclusions:
- Daily perceived criticism and subsequent avoidant coping are key mechanisms contributing to negative affect and reduced positive affect in depression.
- Perceived control and problem-focused coping are important for increasing positive affect, suggesting targets for intervention.
- Interventions addressing avoidant coping, stress management, and self-critical perfectionism are essential for reducing distress and enhancing resilience in major depressive disorder.