Association of Daily Stress With Daily Anxiety and Depression

Abstract: Background: As stress continues to mount in everyday life, there is a corresponding uptick in emotional distress, notably anxiety and depression. Aims: The present research, grounded in the theory of resilience-boosting strategies, explored how daily perceived stress affects anxiety and depression, highlighting the critical moderating role of self-affirmation in cognitive pathways, and the significance of positive attention bias in improving stress resilience. Methods: Using a diary methodology, data was collected from 241 participants over 14 consecutive days and was analyzed using a multilevel linear model. Results: Daily positive attention bias mediated the relationship between perceived stress and anxiety/depression, while self-affirmation acted as a cross-level moderator, affecting the relationship between daily perceived stress and daily positive attention bias and its mediation effect. Specifically, for those with high self-affirmation, daily perceived stress has a weaker negative correlation with daily positive attention bias, which coincides with a decreased intensification of anxiety and depression. Limitations: The study’s limitations include a narrow demographic focus on young Chinese participants, a potential overlook of specific bias components by the self-report scale for positive attentional bias, subjective bias from self-reported stress and emotion measures, and an inability to draw causal conclusions from the diary method. Conclusions: These findings suggest that positive attentional bias and self-affirmation, as a mediating mechanism and cross-level moderator, respectively, are associated with diminishing the effect of perceived stress and the subsequent feelings of anxiety/depression, highlighting their potential protective roles in daily stress.