एक्टा साइकोपैथोलॉजिका खुला एक्सेस

अमूर्त

Rumination as a mediator and moderator of the relationship between unpleasant events and unhappy mood: A daily diary study

Paul E. Jose

There is a lack of research on whether and how stressful events trigger rumination episodes and whether and how rumination, in turn, has a lasting effect on negative mood on a daily basis. To answer these questions, an experience sampling study was conducted with 101 undergraduate students who reported momentary unpleasant events, rumination, and unhappy mood once a day for 30 days. Our findings, as expected, showed that daily rumination mediates the relation between daily unpleasant events and daily unhappy mood. A significant daily moderation finding was also obtained: rumination increased reports of unhappy mood under low levels of unpleasant events. Day-to-day stability was observed for momentary rumination and unhappy mood, and these two variables also displayed a weak bidirectional relation on adjacent days. And finally, a moderated mediation analysis showed that 2) rumination maintains negative mood over time; and 3) rumination is a stronger predictor of day-to-day negative mood than stressful events. These findings illustrate how psychological interpretations of day-to-day life experiences can lead to negative mood states in a community sample.