Examining the impact of major life events on the frequency and experience of daily social events

OBJECTIVE

Life events can impact people's dispositional functioning by changing their state-level patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior. One pathway through which this change may be facilitated is changes in the experience of daily social events.

METHOD

We examined the dynamic relationship between major life events and the subsequent experience of positive and negative daily social events in a year-long longitudinal study (initial N = 1247).

RESULTS

Experiencing positive and negative major life events moderated the effects of positive and negative social events on event-contingent state well-being and ill-being in ways that were mostly (but not always) consistent with both endowment and contrast effects on judgments of well-being. Furthermore, negative life events predicted an increase in the subsequent trajectory of negative social events, while the experience of daily ill-being predicted the subsequent experience of negative social events.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the possible impact of major life events by explaining how they shape the subsequent experience of daily social events.

The relationship between major life events and non-suicidal self-injury among college students: the effect of rumination and body image

Background

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) poses a growing risk to public health worldwide. While numerous studies have identified major life events as key risk factors for NSSI, the mechanisms by which emotional and cognitive problems mediate or moderate this relationship remain unclear. To enhance the understanding of this field, we will draw upon the cascade theory of self-injury and the benefits and barriers model, to examine the relationship between major life events and NSSI, as well as the effect of rumination and body image.

Methods

A sample of 2,717 college students (Mage = 19.81 years; SD = 1.09) participated in this study and anonymously completed the questionnaires. The moderated mediation model were conducted using Model 4 and Model 15 of the Process macro program in SPSS.

Results

The results showed that rumination mediated the positive relationship between major life events and NSSI. Furthermore, body image was found to moderate both the relationship between major life events and NSSI, as well as the relationship between rumination and NSSI.

Conclusion

The current findings suggest that rumination is an important mediator in the relationship between major life events and NSSI among college students. Teachers, parents, and researchers should recognize the important role of body image self-perceptions of college students and actively promote a healthy and accurate body image.

Late Onset Personality Disorders in Mid-Life and Older Adults

There is little research on personality disorder (PD) onset in older age. Many studies have shown that normative personality traits change across the life span, even into later life. This study aimed to investigate the onset of PDs in later adulthood (>age 55), and the possible influence of major life events on predicting this late onset. The current analysis was conducted with data from the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network (SPAN). Structured diagnostic interviews were administered three times over five years. Logistic regressions were conducted predicting late onset PD from baseline to FU5 and from FU5 to FU10 as a function of each major life event. 75 PD onsets occurred from baseline to FU5, and 39 PD onsets occurred from FU5 to FU10. Personal illness predicted the onset of PDs from FU5 to FU10.

Perspectives on resilience: Trait resilience, correlates of resilience in daily life, and longer-term change in affective distress

Resilience describes successful adaptation in the face of adversity, commonly inferred from trajectories of well-being following major life events. Alternatively, resilience was conceptualised as a psychological trait, facilitating adaptation through stable individual characteristics. Both perspectives may relate to individual differences in how stress is regulated in daily life. In the present study, we combined these perspectives on resilience. Our sample consisted of N = 132 middle-aged adults, who experienced major life events in between two waves of a longitudinal study. We implemented latent change regression models to predict change in affective distress. As predictors, we investigated trait resilience and correlates of resilience in daily life (stressor occurrence, stress reactivity, positive reappraisal, mindful attention, and acceptance), measured using experience sampling (T = 70 occasions). Unexpectedly, trait resilience was not associated with change in distress. In contrast, resilience correlates in daily life, most notably lower stress reactivity, were associated with more favourable change. Higher trait resilience related to higher average mindfulness, higher reappraisal, and lower negative affect. Overall, while trait resilience translated into everyday correlates of resilience, it was not predictive of changes in affective distress. Instead, precursors of changes in well-being may be found in correlates of resilience in daily life.

Coping with an Evil World: Contextualizing the Stress-Buffering Role of Scripture Reading

This research note advances the religious coping literature by testing whether belief in an evil world conditions the stress-moderating role of scripture reading. Hypotheses are tested with original data from a survey of Black, Hispanic, and White American churchgoers from South Texas (2017-2018; n = 1,115). Our findings show that reading scripture for insights into the future attenuates the positive association between major life events and psychological distress, but only for congregants who do not believe the world is fundamentally evil and sinful. For congregants who believe the world is evil, scripture reading amplifies the association between life events and distress. Whether scriptural coping is beneficial for mental health could be contingent on a believer's broader assumptions about the nature of the world we live in.

Nothing going on? Exploring the role of missed events in changes in subjective well-being and the Big Five personality traits

OBJECTIVE

Missed events are defined as the nonoccurrence of expected major life events within a specified time frame. We examined whether missed events should be studied in research on growth by exploring the role of missed events for changes in subjective well-being (SWB) and the Big Five personality traits.

METHOD

The samples were selected from two nationally representative panel studies, the German Socioeconomic Panel Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS, total N = 6,638) and the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences panel (LISS, Ns between 4,262 and 5,749). Rank-order stability and mean-level change were analyzed using regression and mixed models. Type I error probability was reduced by using conservative thresholds for level of significance and minimal effect size.

RESULTS

Expected but missed events were more frequent than actually experienced events. For SWB, rank-order stability tended to be lower among those who experienced a missed event than among those who did not. For the Big Five personality traits, significant differences between those who did and those who did not experience a missed event were rare and unsystematic.

CONCLUSION

Missed events merit more attention in future research on growth and personality change, but the effects are probably weak.

Objective and subjective stress, personality, and allostatic load

INTRODUCTION

Despite the understanding of allostatic load (AL) as a consequence of ongoing adaptation to stress, studies of the stress-AL association generally focus on a narrow conceptualization of stress and have thus far overlooked potential confounding by personality. The present study examined the cross-sectional association of objective and subjective stress with AL, controlling for Big Five personality traits.

METHODS

Participants comprised 5,512 members of the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank aged 49-63 years (69% men). AL was measured as a summary index of 14 biomarkers of the inflammatory, cardiovascular, and metabolic system. Objective stress was assessed as self-reported major life events in adult life. Subjective stress was assessed as perceived stress within the past four weeks.

RESULTS

Both stress measures were positively associated with AL, with a slightly stronger association for objective stress. Adjusting for personality traits did not significantly change these associations.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest measures of objective and subjective stress to have independent predictive validity in the context of personality. Further, it is discussed how different operationalizations of stress and AL may account for some of the differences in observed stress-AL associations.

Time-Clustered Deaths and Substance Use Disorder among Young Adults*

This study assesses whether experiencing multiple deaths of loved ones clustered in time increases risk for substance use problems. Using survey data from a community sample of young adults in Miami, Florida (N = 1747), time-clustered deaths were categorized based on the age of the respondent at the time of each death, with less time between deaths representing greater time-clustering. Results indicate that young adults experiencing multiple deaths that are highly time clustered are at increased risk for substance use disorder and alcohol use. This study provides an alternative way of thinking about how young people may be affected by major life events. It suggests that the increased risk for substance use disorder associated with multiple deaths may be more likely to materialize when the deaths are highly clustered in time.

Stressful life events, chronic difficulties, and the symptoms of clinical depression

Major life events and chronic difficulties have been found to be associated with the onset of depression. Little is known, however, about how exposure to such stressors is related to the clinical presentation of this disorder. We addressed this issue by administering an interview-based measure of life stress, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Global Assessment of Functioning scale to 100 adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants who experienced a preonset severe life event exhibited greater overall levels of depression severity, endorsed more cognitive and somatic symptoms of depression, and functioned at lower levels than did their counterparts without preonset severe life events. In contrast, exposure to a preonset severe difficulty was unrelated to participants' severity of depression, cognitive and somatic symptoms, or level of global functioning. These findings highlight the potentially greater importance of acute stress compared with chronic stress for influencing these key clinical features of depression.