Daily Assessments of Stress and Coping and Their Association with Mood

This article reviews the evidence that measures of daily stress and coping relate to daily mood. Several conceptualizations of daily stress exist, ranging from single-item perceived stress scales to complex-event checklists. Only one daily coping questionnaire is currently available. A strong finding in the studies reviewed is that there is a same-day association between stress, regardless of how it is measured, and mood. However, usually only a subset of subjects with strong stress-mood relationships produce the overall association. While appraisals of particular characteristics of event experience improve the association slightly, simple counts of events do remarkably well. Day-of the-week is shown to have a strong effect on mood, and this pattern may be caused by fluctuations in types of daily events. The evidence is mixed, though more negative than positive, regarding the effects of stressors on next-day mood. Several moderators of the stress-mood relationship have been identified, and this is an area that deserves greater attention. Efforts to cope with daily stressors have also been related to daily mood, and coping methods are differentially associated with positive and negative moods. Going beyond end-ofiday reports, recent relationships between momentary reports of mood and stress are presented.