Factors Affecting the Extent of Monday Blues: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis of 34 samples identified a small but reliable “Monday blues” effect (−.08≤ d≤−.06) in samples reporting current or real-time moods for each day of the week. However, the size of the effect in samples reporting recalled summaries of moods experienced over the course of a day varied depending on whether the sample involved university students or nonstudents. University students reporting recalled summaries of daily moods showed a large Monday blues effect ( d = −.25), whereas married men who were not students reported smaller effects with greater variance (−.19≤ d≤−.01). The 34 samples reporting recalled summaries of moods experienced over multiple days produced effects ranging from −.25 to −1.28, but the variance among these samples was too great to estimate an aggregate d statistic.