Purpose in life and stress: Momentary associations from a micro‐longitudinal study

Abstract

AbstractPurpose in life is an aspect of well‐being associated with less subjective stress. The present research sought to expand this literature by testing the association between both dispositional and momentary purpose with stress in daily life using a micro‐longitudinal study design. Participants (N = 303) reported their dispositional purpose at baseline and reported their momentary purpose and stress three times a day for 8 days. Between‐person, dispositional purpose was associated with less momentary stress across the 8 days tested with linear regression (β = −0.29, 95% CI = −0.39, −18, p < 0.001); it was unrelated to variability in stress (β = 0.05, 95% CI = −0.05, 0.14, p = 0.310). In contrast, the within‐person analysis tested with multilevel modelling indicated that in moments when participants felt more purpose‐driven than their average, they felt more stressed (b = 0.09, 95% CI = 0.06, 0.12, SE = 0.01, p < 0.001). This association was slightly stronger among participants with relatively lower dispositional purpose (binteraction = −0.04, SE = 0.02, 95% CI = −0.08, −0.01, p = 0.032). This study replicated the negative association between dispositional purpose and subjective stress when stress was measured at moments in daily life. It also found that feeling more purpose‐driven than usual in the moment is stressful, a counterintuitive finding that, if replicated, suggests that striving for purpose can be stressful in the moment, even if feeling more purposeful in general is associated with lower stress.