Reactivity of Positive and Negative Affect to Momentary Stress and Discrimination
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Affective reactivity to stress and the subsequent persistence of distress may explain how stressful experiences in daily life impact health and well-being. However, many existing studies either assess one type of stressor or assess stress exposure in an omnibus manner, both limit our understanding of how various types of stressors may differentially influence affect. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) was used to examine affective reactivity to racial discrimination and general stress broadly construed in 493 African American adults (Mage = 65.8, SD = 5.5, range 55–75; 72% female) from The Heart of Detroit Study. Momentary negative (NA) and positive affect (PA), experiences of racial discrimination, and other stress experiences were reported up to four times daily during a seven-day EMA protocol and analyzed with residual dynamic structural equation models. Momentary racial discrimination concurrently predicted higher NA and lower PA. However, these associations did not survive adjustment for general stress, which was also independently associated with higher NA and lower PA. Findings suggest a novel, cyclical pathway by which, in addition to concurrent associations, elevated NA predicted higher intraindividual stress and elevated PA predicted lower intraindividual stress four hours later. General stress was not related to future NA or PA. Between-person elevation in depressive symptoms and neuroticism were associated with higher mean general stress, higher mean NA, lower mean PA, and greater intraindividual variability in PA. Study results highlight the importance of differentiating between categories of stressful experiences to identify the proximal correlates of affective variation.
Institution: Virginia Commonwealth University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7165036944