ArticleHealth psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association2015
Affective reactivity to daily stressors is associated with elevated inflammation.
Article in Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 182 citations in OpenAlex.
- Socioeconomic status and inflammation: a meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Mindfulness training fosters a positive outlook during acute stress: A randomized controlled trial.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Trial
- Are Daily Well-Being and Emotional Reactivity to Stressors Modifiable in Midlife?: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial of an Online Social Intelligence Training Program.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2023Trial
- The prospective association between stressful life events and inflammation among adolescents with a history of early institutional rearing.Development and psychopathology · 2020Trial
- Anger-reduction treatment reduces negative affect reactivity to daily stressors.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2019Trial
- Mood reactivity to daily family stressors among transgender and nonbinary parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2026Article
- Inflammation, fronto-amygdala connectivity, and negative affective reactivity to daily stress in adolescents.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Negative affect and peripheral inflammation: The role of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Daily stressor control buffers stressor-related negative and positive affect associations.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Interrelations between daily stress processes and Big Five personality trait changes over 20 years.Psychology and aging · 2026Article
- Affective Responsivity and Cardiovascular Stress Reactivity in Depression.Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) · 2026Article
- Loneliness Moderates Affective Responses to Uplifts in Everyday Life.Personality and individual differences · 2026Article
- Associations between pain reactivity to worse sleep and health outcomes.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Stress-induced IL-6 regulation in pediatric bone growth disorders: current insights and therapeutic strategies.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Review
- The relationship between blood pressure and cognitive decline differs by race.The Gerontologist · 2025Article
- The National Study of Daily Experiences: Protocol for Assessments of Daily Stress, Well-Being, Health, and Salivary Biomarkers in a Longitudinal Cohort.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Partner strain and support associations with affective reactions to daily stressors.Family relations · 2025Article
- Cumulative social advantage is associated with slower epigenetic aging and lower systemic inflammation.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Real-life Psychological Experiences and Cardiac Autonomic Physiology among Survivors of a Myocardial Infarction in Midlife.Research square · 2025Article
- Stress reactivity and maternal health (STRIVE): protocol for a multisite observational cohort study.BMJ open · 2025Article
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveInflammation increases the risk of chronic diseases, but the links between emotional responses to daily events and inflammation are unknown. We examined individual differences in affective reactivity to daily stressors (i.e., changes in positive and negative affect in response to stressors) as predictors of inflammatory markers interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP).
methodsA cross-sectional sample of 872 adults from the National Study of Daily Experiences (substudy of Midlife in the United States II) reported daily stressors and affect during telephone interviews for 8 days. Blood samples were obtained at a separate clinic visit and assayed for inflammatory markers. Multilevel models estimated trait affective reactivity slopes for each participant, which were inputted into regression models to predict inflammation.
resultsPeople who experienced greater decreases in positive affect on days when stressors occurred (i.e., positive affect reactivity) had elevated log IL-6, independent of demographic, physical, psychological, and behavioral factors (B = 1.12, SE = 0.45, p = .01). Heightened negative affect reactivity was associated with higher log CRP among women (p = .03) but not men (p = .57); health behaviors accounted for this association in women.
conclusionsAdults who fail to maintain positive affect when faced with minor stressors in everyday life appear to have elevated levels of IL-6, a marker of inflammation. Women who experience increased negative affect when faced with minor stressors may be at particular risk of elevated inflammation. These findings add to growing evidence regarding the health implications of affective reactivity to daily stressors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.