Age Differences Among Within-Person Indicators of Stress and Depressive Affect

Abstract

We examined age differences in the within-person relationships among perceived stress (PS), perceived stress reactivity (PSR), and depressive affect (DA) as well as potential mechanisms of depression with a longitudinal moderated mediation model. Participants from the Notre Dame Study of Health & Wellbeing ( N = 572) completed two to four waves of yearly assessments. Sequentially built multilevel models, in which year was nested within person, illustrated that only midlife adults experience an exacerbated effect of within-person fluctuations in PSR on the relationship between within-person PS and DA levels (γ41 = –.004, p < .01). Findings further suggest that PSR accounts for the PS–DA relationship. Furthermore, older adults illustrate successful emotion regulation strategies at the yearly level—resisting the negative ramifications of years of greater PS and PSR, whereas midlife adults who experience years of greater PSR would particularly benefit from stress management interventions and monitoring of DA levels.