Stress Generation Across Hours, Days, and 1 Month

Abstract

Stress generation describes that people with mental-health problems actively contribute to the occurrence of stressful events in their lives, which can lead to detrimental cycles between stress and mental health. However, existing research has mostly focused on long-term stress generation. Here, we aimed to advance the understanding of how stress generation unfolds across different timescales by combining experience-sampling, daily diary, and 1-month longitudinal data ( N = 403). We found that between-persons differences in depression, rumination, reassurance seeking, and neuroticism were linked to the occurrence of daily hassles over hours and days as well as major life stressors over a month. Furthermore, momentary neuroticism and rumination prospectively predicted the reporting of daily hassles over several hours. Finally, some indicators of hourly and daily stress generation prospectively predicted the occurrence of major life stressors. These findings provide the starting point for a thorough understanding of how stress generation unfolds over time.