Neuroticism, Internalizing Psychopathology, and Affective Reactions to Thought Content in Daily Life

This study examined affective reactions to thought content (TC) in daily life and the influence of neuroticism and internalizing symptoms.

Community young adults (N = 119; n = 80 with elevated depression/anxiety) completed assessments of neuroticism, internalizing symptoms, and daily diary measures of TC and positive/negative affect for seven consecutive days (N = 758 observations). Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) examined the structure of TC. Multilevel models examined TC-affect relationships and moderation by neuroticism and internalizing symptoms.

MCFA found two TC factors: internal-past (problems, emotions, the past) and external-present (external events, others, the present). Internal-past TC uniquely related to lower positive and higher negative affect within and between persons. External-present TC uniquely related to higher positive affect within and between persons. Neuroticism and internalizing related to higher negative and lower positive affect, but neither variable significantly moderated TC-affect relationships. Neuroticism had incremental effects over and above internalizing. At the facet level, self-consciousness uniquely predicted lower positive affect, and angry hostility uniquely predicted higher negative affect.

TC meaningfully relates to emotion in daily life. Neuroticism and internalizing predicted overall experience of positive/negative emotion, not affective reactions to specific TC. Within-persons, neuroticism and internalizing were differentiated by the incremental effect of neuroticism and the specific effects of neuroticism facets. Theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications are discussed.