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Combining Stress Exposure and Stress Generation: Does Neuroticism Alter the Dynamic Interplay of Stress, Depression, and Anxiety Following Job Loss?

ABSTRACT: Emerging models of stress point to a dynamic formulation where stressors and internalizing symptoms reciprocally influence each other. This study tested whether this dynamic interplay is the result of a general internalizing process underlying both depression and anxiety, and whether it varies with neuroticism.A total of 426 adults (51% female; 47% White, 42% African American) were assessed five times over 6 months following loss of employment, using repeated measurements of stressors, depression, anxiety, and neuroticism.Latent growth across 6 months and multilevel cross-lagged regressions across 6 weeks supported the hypothesis that stressors and internalizing symptoms have reciprocal effects after job loss. Findings for unique variation in depression paralleled those for general internalizing, whereas few findings emerged for general or social anxiety after controlling for internalizing. Neuroticism strengthened the association of change in stressors with change in symptoms across 6 months. Those with high neuroticism showed less reduction in internalizing following reemployment and were less likely to be reemployed when starting with higher internalizing.The moderated reciprocal effects model helps account for onset, maintenance, and resolution of symptoms following job loss. We speculate that these findings may be due in part to differential emotion regulation and reductions in motivation.

SUBMITTER: Howe GW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5116422 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Combining Stress Exposure and Stress Generation: Does Neuroticism Alter the Dynamic Interplay of Stress, Depression, and Anxiety Following Job Loss?

Howe George W GW Cimporescu Maria M Seltzer Ryan R Neiderhiser Jenae M JM Moreno Francisco F Weihs Karen K

Journal of personality 20160617 4

<h4>Objective</h4>Emerging models of stress point to a dynamic formulation where stressors and internalizing symptoms reciprocally influence each other. This study tested whether this dynamic interplay is the result of a general internalizing process underlying both depression and anxiety, and whether it varies with neuroticism.<h4>Method</h4>A total of 426 adults (51% female; 47% White, 42% African American) were assessed five times over 6 months following loss of employment, using repeated mea ...[more]

PMID: 27197979

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Project description:ObjectiveThe etiology of somatization is incompletely understood, but could be elucidated by models of psychosocial stress. Academic exam stress has effectively been applied as a naturalistic stress model, however its effect on somatization symptoms according to ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria has not been reported so far. Baseline associations between somatization and personality traits, such as alexithymia, have been studied exhaustively. Nevertheless, it is largely unknown if personality traits have an explanatory value for stress induced somatization.MethodsThis longitudinal, quasi-experimental study assessed the effects of university exams on somatization - and the reversal of effects after an exam-free period. Repeated-observations were obtained within 150 students, measuring symptom intensity before, during and after an exam period, according to the Screening for Somatoform Symptoms 7-day (SOMS-7d). Additionally, self-reports on health status were used to differentiate between medically explained and medically unexplained symptoms. Alexithymia, neuroticism, trait-anxiety and baseline depression were surveyed using the Toronto-Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Big-Five Personality Interview (NEO-FFI), the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II). These traits were competitively tested for their ability to explain somatization increases under exam stress.ResultsSomatization significantly increased across a wide range of symptoms under exam stress, while health reports pointed towards a reduction in acute infections and injuries. Neuroticism, alexithymia, trait anxiety and depression explained variance in somatization at baseline, but only neuroticism was associated with symptom increases under exam stress.ConclusionExam stress is an effective psychosocial stress model inducing somatization. A comprehensive quantitative description of bodily symptoms under exam stress is supplied. The results do not support the stress-alexithymia hypothesis, but favor neuroticism as a personality trait of importance for somatization.

Dataset Information

Combining Stress Exposure and Stress Generation: Does Neuroticism Alter the Dynamic Interplay of Stress, Depression, and Anxiety Following Job Loss?

Publications

Combining Stress Exposure and Stress Generation: Does Neuroticism Alter the Dynamic Interplay of Stress, Depression, and Anxiety Following Job Loss?

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