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A central goal of daily stress research is to identify resilience and vulnerability factors associated with exposure and reactivity to daily stressors. The current study examined how age differences and global perceptions of stress relate to exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors. Sixty-seven younger (M age = 20) and 116 older (M age = 80) adults completed a daily stress diary and measures of positive and negative affect on 6 days over a 14 day period. Participants also completed a measure of global perceived stress. Results revealed that reported exposure to daily stressors is reduced in old age, but that emotional reactivity to daily stressors did not differ between young and older adults. Global perceived stress was associated with greater reported exposure to daily stressors in old adults, and greater stress-related increases in negative affect in younger adults. Furthermore, across days on which daily stressors were reported, intraindividual variability in the number and severity of stressors reported was associated with increased negative affect, but only among younger adults. KeywordsAging; Stress; Emotion; Emotional Reactivity The experience of both major life events and daily stressors has been linked to numerous negative physical health outcomes, as well as mental health and psychological well-being (Baum & Posluzny, 1999;Grzywacz, Almeida, Neupert & Ettner, 2004;Kiecolt-Glaser, McGuire, Robles, & Glaser, 2002;Pinquart & Sorensen, 2003). In contrast to major life events, which are relatively rare, daily stressors (or "hassles") are minor stressors that occur with greater frequency and represent proximal aspects of stress in individuals' daily lives and environments. There has been increased interest in examining factors associated with exposure and reactivity to daily stressors in order to identify risk-and protective-factors (Almeida, 2005). Furthermore, it is important to understand who is at risk for experiencing daily stressors, as well what factors exacerbate (or protect against) reactivity to these events, because these minor hassles could have long-lasting, detrimental effects on physical and mental health (Lazarus, 1999;Zautra, 2003). The current study was conducted to examine reported exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors in younger (e.g., in their 20s) and older (e.g., in their 80s) adults, and the role of one's perceived stress in exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Robert S. Stawski, Pennsylvania State University -Gerontology Center, 135 E. Nittany Ave., Suite 405, State College, PA 16801, Ph: 814.865.7374, Fax: 814.863.9423, rss24@psu.edu, or Recent studies have shown that age plays an important role in daily stress processes (Mroczek & Almeida, 2004;Sliwinski, Smyth, Hofer & Stawski, 2006), and understanding the role of age in exposure and reactivity to daily stressors is important because it can help characterize daily experiences and well-being across the lifespan. Furth...

Most psychological theories predict associations among processes that transpire within individuals. However, these theories are often tested by examining relationships at the between-persons (BP) rather than the within-persons (WP) level. The authors examined the WP and BP relationships between daily stress and daily variability in cognitive performance. Daily stress and cognitive performance were assessed on 6 occasions in 108 older adults and 68 young adults. WP variability in stress predicted WP variability in response times (RTs) on a 2-back working memory task in both younger and older adults. That is, RTs were slower on high-stress days compared with low-stress days. There was evidence of an amplified WP stress effect in the older adults on a serial attention task. There was no evidence of stress effects on simple versions of these tasks that placed minimal demands on working memory. These results are consistent with theories that postulate that stressrelated cognitive interference competes for attentional resources. Keywordsaging; cognition; working memory; stress; intraindividual variability There is impressive evidence of stable individual differences on cognitive measures, even across very long time spans (Deary, Whiteman, Starr, Whalley, & Fox, 2004). Accordingly, most theories of intellectual and cognitive function have focused on these stable individual differences for inferences regarding relationships among cognitive processes (e.g., Carroll, 1993). Despite impressive stability in intellectual functioning, individuals do vary in cognitive performance even over very short retest intervals (Hertzog, Dixon, & Hultsch, 1992;Li, Aggen, Nesselroade, & Baltes, 2001). Such "state-based" variability is often relegated to the domain of measurement error and viewed as both a theoretical and a methodological nuisance. However, a number of psychologists have argued that the focused study of intraindividual or within-persons (WP) cognitive variability is critical for understanding developmental cognitive changes (Hultsch & MacDonald, 2004;Nesselroade & Ram, 2004;Siegler, 1994). We concur with this view and hope to demonstrate that modeling WP cognitive variability can facilitate understanding of basic cognitive function.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Martin J. Sliwinski, Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244. mjsliwin@syr.edu. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptA number of researchers have postulated that trial-to-trial performance variability is a fundamental characteristic of both brain function and individual differences in human intelligence. Specifically, higher levels of cognitive variability correlate with lower levels of intelligence (Jensen, 1992;Rabbitt, Osman, Moore, & Stollery, 2001). A recent life span study (Li et al., 2004) demonstrated that trial-to-trial variability becomes increasingly predictive of fluid intelligence in older age. Such increased trial-to-trial variabilit...

There is little longitudinal information on aging-related changes in emotional responses to negative events. The present manuscript examined intraindividual change and variability in the within-person coupling of daily stress and negative affect (NA) using data from two-measurement burst daily diary studies. Three main findings emerged. First, average reactivity to daily stress increased longitudinally, and this increase was evident across most the adult lifespan. Second, individual differences in emotional reactivity to daily stress exhibited long-term temporal stability, but this stability was greatest in midlife and decreased in old age. And third, reactivity to daily stress varied reliably within-persons (across-time), with individual exhibiting higher levels of reactivity during times when reporting high levels of global subject stress in previous month. Taken together, the present results emphasize the importance of modeling dynamic psychosocial and aging processes that operate across different time scales for understanding age-related changes in daily stress processes.Keywords longitudinal change; aging; stress; emotion; and health Intraindividual change and variability in daily stress processes: Findings from two measurement-burst diary studiesEfforts to understand the impact of psychosocial stressors have increasingly focused on the role of minor events or daily hassles. Daily stressors exhibit immediate effects on emotional and physical functioning on the day they occur (e.g., Bolger & Schilling, 1991; Zautra, Afflec, Tennen, Reich, & Davis, 2005) and create aggregated effects that increase vulnerability to problems including anxiety, depression and disease (e.g., Almeida, 2005; Cacioppo et al, 1998;Lazarus, 1999;Zautra, 2003). Because both resources of individuals and their environments limit or enhance the possibilities and choices for coping with daily experiences, reactivity to stressors is likely to differ across people as well as across situations. Given aging Correspondence to: Martin J. Sliwinski, The Gerontology Center, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, mjs56@psu.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/journals/pag NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptPsychol Aging. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 December 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript related changes in personal resources and environments, one might expect concurrent changes in daily stress processes, particularly in terms of emotional reactivity to daily...

Findings highlight the potential importance of dynamic aspects of positive affect in prediction of physical health outcomes such as mortality.

Using daily diary methods, mothers of adolescents and adults with ASD (n = 86) were contrasted with a nationally representative comparison group of mothers of similarly-aged unaffected children (n = 171) with respect to the diurnal rhythm of cortisol. Mothers of adolescents and adults with ASD were found to have significantly lower levels of cortisol throughout the day. Within the ASD sample, the son or daughter's history of behavior problems interacted with daily behavior problems to predict the morning rise of the mother's cortisol. A history of elevated behavior problems moderated the effect of behavior problems the day before on maternal cortisol level. Implications for interventions for both the mother and the individual with ASD are suggested. Keywordsstress; cortisol; parenting; behavior problems; adolescents; adults Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often report higher levels of stress and poorer psychological well-being than parents of children with other types of developmental disabilities (Abbeduto et al., 2004;Blacher & McIntyre, 2006;Eisenhower, Baker, & Blacher, 2005). Past research has examined various child-related factors that might explain this elevated level of psychological distress among parents of children with ASD, with findings consistently indicating that child behavior problems are significant sources of stress (Hastings et al., 2005;Herring et al., 2006;Lounds, Seltzer, Greenberg, & Shattuck, 2007). It is not known, however, whether this level of stress disturbs the physiology and health of these parents, highlighting a need for research on the biological markers of stress in families of individuals with ASD. The present study sought to address this gap by examining the associations between behavior problems in adolescents or adults with ASD and maternal salivary cortisol, a hormone secreted from the adrenal gland, in a sample of mothers and their adolescent or adult children with ASD.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Marsha Mailick Seltzer, Waisman Center, University of WisconsinMadison, 1500 Highland Ave., Madison, WI 53705. Phone: (608) Fax: (608) Biological Markers of StressCortisol is a hormonal marker of stress which has received considerable attention in studies of psychological and physical health. During exposure to an acute stressful event, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is activated and releases cortisol from the adrenal cortex into the bloodstream. Cortisol, in turn, acts on a variety of adaptive responses including protein synthesis and glucose regulation, immune function, and mental activity (Flinn, 2006). In the short term, these changes enable the body to respond to the immediate challenge (i.e., extending the "fight or flight" response induced by adrenaline); however, chronic stress and persistent activation of the HPA axis can have detrimental impacts on health and well-being, such as a suppression of bone growth and certain immune responses, as well as poorer cognitive performance (McEwe...

Retirement counselors, financial service professionals, and retirement intervention specialists routinely emphasize the importance of developing clear goals for the future; however, few empirical studies have focused on the benefits of retirement goal setting. In the present study, the extent to which goal clarity and financial planning activities predict retirement savings practices was examined among 100 working adults. Path analysis techniques were used to test two competing models, both of which were designed to predict savings contributions. Findings provide support for the model in which retirement goal clarity is a significant predictor of planning practices, and planning, in turn, predicts savings tendencies. Two demographic variables-income and age-were also revealed to be important elements of the model, with income accounting for roughly half of the explained variance in savings contributions. The results of this study have implications for the development of age-based models of planning, as well as implications for retirement counselors and financial planners who advise workers on long-term saving strategies.