Coping strategies predict daily emotional reactivity to stress: An ecological momentary assessment study

Emotional reactivity predicts poor health and psychopathology. Despite its theoretical importance, little research has tested whether coping predicts emotional reactivity to stressors. We analyse three studies to test this hypothesis for negative (NA) and positive affect (PA) reactivity to daily stressors.

422 Participants (72.5 % females, M_age = 22.79 ± 5.36) came from three longitudinal, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies across 7-15 days (ACES N = 190; DESTRESS N = 134; SHS N = 98). Coping was measured at baseline. NA, PA, and daily stressors were assessed via EMA. Mixed effects linear models tested whether coping predicted NA and PA reactivity, defined as their slope on within- and between-person daily stressors.

Behavioural disengagement and mental disengagement coping predicted greater within-person NA reactivity across all studies (all p < .01, all f² = 0.01). Denial coping predicted greater within-person NA reactivity in ACES and DESTRESS (both p < .01, f² from 0.02-0.03) and between-person in ACES and SHS (both p < .01, f² from 0.02 to 0.03). For approach-oriented coping, only active planning coping predicted lower within-person NA reactivity and only in DESTRESS (p < .01, f² = 0.02). Coping did not predict PA reactivity (all p > .05).

Our findings cannot be generalised to children or older adults. Emotional reactivity to daily stressors may differ from severe or traumatic stressors. Although data were longitudinal, the observational design precludes establishing causality.

Avoidance-oriented coping strategies predicted greater NA reactivity to daily stressors with small effect sizes. Few and inconsistent results emerged for approach-oriented coping and PA reactivity. Clinically, our results suggest that reducing reliance on avoidance-oriented coping may reduce NA reactivity to daily stressors.