The article below may contain offensive and/or incorrect content.
Affective volatility (i.e., variability) is typically conceptualized as a marker of poor mental and behavioral health. The current research challenges this notion. Among individuals who typically experience low positive affect (PA), vacillation between bouts of joy and marked anhedonia may be associated with better behavioral health relative to a restricted range of PA experience. We therefore tested the hypothesis that mean levels of PA captured via an 8-day intensive repeated Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) would moderate the association of EMA-measured PA variability with behavioral health measured at intake among working mothers (N = 202) with young children—a population at risk for experiencing repeated stress- and reward-induced PA changes. Mixed-effects location scale modeling parsed variance in PA mean and variability, which were used in subject-level regression models of associations with depressive symptoms, anxiety, and alcohol use. PA mean moderated the associations of PA variability with depressive symptoms (Interaction: ? = .20, p = .02) and alcohol consumption frequency (Interaction: ? = .22, p = .02). PA variability and depressive symptom and alcohol consumption levels were positively associated at higher PA mean levels, whereas PA variability was inversely associated with depressive symptom and alcohol consumption at low mean PA. PA Mean × Variability Interactions were not significant for anxiety and binge drinking. We conclude that (a) intensive longitudinal modeling of Affect Mean × Variability Interaction effects may provide incremental information in psychopathology research; (b) PA volatility does not unilaterally indicate poor behavioral health; and (c) a nuanced perspective on the role of PA volatility may benefit clinical services for working mothers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)





Departments
Authors
Libraries
Current Articles
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » NIMH Expert Dr. Krystal Lewis Discusses Managing Stress & Anxiety
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Scientific Meeting » NIMH Livestream Event: Managing Stress and Anxiety
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: A third of Americans don't see systemic racism as a barrier to good health
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: What brain imaging tells us about decluttering our minds
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Blog Post » Showing Support for Basic Researchers
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to reduce news-related stress for better mental health
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Five myths about loneliness
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to help someone struggling with suicidal ideation
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Better sleep hygiene is crucial when you're anxious
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to remotivate kids for more distance learning
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to set goals you’ll actually achieve
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: To 'keep sharp' this year, keep learning
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Mental health is one of the biggest issues facing 2021
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Reasons to prioritize better sleep in 2021
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Coping with post-holiday blues amid coronavirus
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » The NIMH Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Pursuing an Innovation Agenda: A New Healthcare Architecture
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Pandemic worsening domestic abuse
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Young people's anxiety levels nearly doubled during first Covid-19 lockdown
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » NIMH Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Decision-Making and Computational Psychiatry
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Blog Post » The Lives Lost to COVID-19