Psychological Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Successful Adaptation to Stress in Later Life

In 3 studies, the authors investigated the functional role of psychological resilience and positive emotions in the stress process. Studies 1a and 1b explored naturally occurring daily stressors. Study 2 examined data from a sample of recently bereaved widows. Across studies, multilevel random coeff...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 2006-10, Vol.91 (4), p.730-749
Main Authors: Ong, Anthony D, Bergeman, C. S, Bisconti, Toni L, Wallace, Kimberly A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation to change
Adaptation, Psychological
Affect
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Attitude
Biological and medical sciences
Emotional Adjustment
Emotional States
Emotions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gerontology
Human
Humans
Male
Mental stress
Middle Aged
Personality
Personality traits
Personality. Affectivity
Positive Emotions
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Resilience
Resilience (Psychological)
Social psychology
Stress
Stress Reactions
Stress, Psychological - psychology
Studies
Widows & widowers
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In 3 studies, the authors investigated the functional role of psychological resilience and positive emotions in the stress process. Studies 1a and 1b explored naturally occurring daily stressors. Study 2 examined data from a sample of recently bereaved widows. Across studies, multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses revealed that the occurrence of daily positive emotions serves to moderate stress reactivity and mediate stress recovery. Findings also indicated that differences in psychological resilience accounted for meaningful variation in daily emotional responses to stress. Higher levels of trait resilience predicted a weaker association between positive and negative emotions, particularly on days characterized by heightened stress. Finally, findings indicated that over time, the experience of positive emotions functions to assist high-resilient individuals in their ability to recover effectively from daily stress. Implications for research into protective factors that serve to inhibit the scope, severity, and diffusion of daily stressors in later adulthood are discussed.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.91.4.730