The Role of Stress and Resilience Profiles in Emotional Health

Distal and proximal life stressors, including past trauma, subjective social status, and perceived stress can accumulate over time, placing strain on the body and contributing to increased allostatic load. Consequently, those with heightened stress experiences are at elevated risk of both mental and physical health concerns. However, research suggests that resilience may be a seminal protective factor, often safeguarding against negative health outcomes in the context of stress. Despite the extensive research base in stress and resilience, limited investigations have focused on how they co‐occur and shape emotion processes. The current study strives to address these gaps by (1) exploring patterns of distal and proximal stress and resilience and (2) mapping these patterns onto two emotion processes found to have significant influence on health outcomes: emotion regulation and emotionality stigma. A sample of 329 adults ( M age = 37.83, SD age = 11.86) were recruited using an online recruitment system and reported on their experiences of distal and proximal stress, resilience, emotion regulation, and emotionality stigma. Participants primarily identified as non‐Hispanic (90.2%) and White (77.8%), with a household income of less than $55,000 (52.8%). Using latent profile analysis (LPA), three unique subgroups emerged based on the co‐occurrence of distal and proximal stressors with resilience: (1) low stress, high resilience , (2) high proximal stress, low resilience , and (3) high distal stress, moderate resilience . These profiles were significantly associated with emotion processes such that those in the high proximal stress, low resilience profile reported significantly lower emotion regulation than those in the other two profiles. Participants in both higher‐stress profiles reported significantly greater emotionality stigma than those in the low stress, high resilience profile. Finding implications for future research and practice are discussed.