Risky or dysregulated behaviors such as non-suicidal self-injury, risky substance use, aggression, and disordered eating co-occur at higher-than-expected rates; dimensional, structural and personality-informed models of psychopatholgy may help to explain these patterns of covariation. We used latent variable models to test three transdiagnostic models of risky behaviors in two community samples: youth aged 14-20 (N=565, Sample 1), and first-year university students (N=627, Sample 2). In both samples, fit indices favored a hierarchical model wherein a higher-order general risky behavior factor was indicated by three lower-order dimensions: internalizing risky behaviors, comprised of self-injurious behaviours, prescription drug misuse, and maladaptive weight control behaviors; disinhibited risky behaviors, comprised of substance misuse, risky sex, and intoxicated driving; and, antagonistic risky behaviors, comprised of physical aggression toward objects and people, intoxicated driving, and law-violating behaviors. Next, we examined associations between risky behavior dimensions, self-reported personality traits, and performance on computerized approach/avoidance tasks in Sample 2. Internalizing risky behaviors were most strongly associated with neuroticism and negative urgency, while disinhibited and antagonistic risky behaviors were most strongly associated with sensitivity to reward and sensation seeking. Antagonistic risky behaviors were negatively associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness, while disinhibited risky behaviors were negatively associated with sensitivity to punishment. Results support the potential of a dimensional transdiagnostic model to identify meaningful patterns of co-occurrence that are distinguishable in terms of personality.

Introduction Social camouflaging (SC; ie, the concealing of autistic traits to socially assimilate) is associated with poor mental health, self-identity and quality of life outcomes, yet its typology, consequences and contextual triggers remain unexplored in autistic adolescents. Further study is necessary to identify protective factors against the potentially negative outcomes associated with SC to promote long-term well-being.Methods The current project will investigate SC in youth and its mental health, cognitive and neurophysiological correlates. Camouflaging will be captured by triangulating self-reported and caregiver-reported SC behaviours, as well as SC behaviours in day-to-day contexts using intensive longitudinal methods (ie, daily diaries). Non-autistic, self-identifying autistic and formally diagnosed autistic adolescents aged 15–18 years (N=150) will be recruited. Adolescents and caregivers will complete rating scales to assess mental health, and adolescents will complete in-lab cognitive assessments of attention, executive function, intellectual ability and theory of mind. Brain neurophysiological function and cortisol concentration over time will be measured during the same visit using electroencephalography and hair samples, respectively. Over the following 7 days, adolescents will complete daily diaries using their smartphones. The daily diaries pose survey questions about the type and degree of SC behaviour used within their daily environment, including the social context, individuals who are present and current well-being. Adolescents will also complete brief performance-based cognitive assessments of attention and executive function integrated within the daily diary surveys. Finally, adolescents and their parents will complete a follow-up of SC behaviours and mental health at 3 months. Correlations and regression analyses will be conducted to explore the associations between SC and mental health/cognitive outcomes and how baseline measures of cognition, mental health and SC predict patterns seen on the daily diaries. Multilevel modelling will be used, nesting daily data to capture within-person and between-group differences in contextual predictors of camouflaging behaviour. Results will contribute to current understanding of the typology of camouflaging, as well as inform intervention to mitigate mental health challenges for autistic youth.Ethics and dissemination This project is approved by the University of Victoria Human Research Ethics Board (#23–0013) and the University of Calgary Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board (#23–0641). Informed consent will be obtained from caregivers and adolescent participants, and safety procedures will be put in place to support the adolescent should mental health concerns arise. Results will be disseminated through academic publications and conferences, as well as summarised and communicated to interested participants and relevant stakeholders.

Loneliness, the subjective feeling of social isolation, is a major public health concern linked to poor health, including stress-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease. However, less is known about how loneliness relates to biological functioning in everyday life and whether age and social interactions shape these associations. We investigated whether loneliness self-reported in everyday life related to the dynamic range of diurnal cortisol (CDR) compared to other indicators of diurnal cortisol (including the cortisol awakening response [CAR], diurnal cortisol slope [DCS], and area under the curve [AUC]). We also tested whether associations varied by age and frequency of positive social interactions. Data come from a national daily assessment study with participants ranging between 34 and 83 years old who completed 8 days of daily diary assessments (N = 626) and 4 days of salivary cortisol collection. Linear regression analyses showed that people with higher average daily loneliness had more compressed levels of CDR (b = -2.66, SE = 0.74, p < .001), an association that did not differ by age (b = -0.04, SE = 0.06, p = .46). The association between loneliness and CDR varied as a function of the number of days with positive social interactions (b = 0.90, SE = 0.18, p = 0.02), such that the association was smaller among people who reported more positive social interactions. No associations were found for CAR, DCS, or AUC. Findings suggest that greater loneliness in daily life is associated with reduced HPA-axis flexibility, particularly among individuals with fewer positive social interactions.

Background: Autistic individuals are subject to social stigma due to their identity-based minority status. To avoid stigmatization, some Autistic individuals engage in social camouflaging (SC), in which a person utilizes cognitive and/or behavioural strategies to conceal their autistic traits and compensate for socio-cognitive differences. SC is linked with poorer mental health outcomes in Autistic people; similar patterns have been found between internalized stigma and mental health among those with concealable minority statuses (e.g., sexual identity). There is limited understanding as to why adolescents use SC, so we examined the potential role of internalized stigma in explaining SC’s effects on mental health (i.e., anxiety and depressive symptoms). We hypothesized that the association between SC and mental health is mediated by internalized stigma. Method: Preliminary testing of our hypothesis was conducted using a small pilot sample of Autistic adolescents (n = 9). Results: Preliminary analyses suggested that SC was significantly associated with internalized stigma and mental health. Conclusions: Use of SC by Autistic adolescents may partially contribute to greater levels of internalized stigma, which may then have negative impacts on mental health. Given the preliminary nature of the findings and small sample size, research with larger samples of Autistic adolescents is needed to further disentangle these associations and replicate findings.

Personality is characterized by continuity and the capacity to change across the lifespan. Integrative personality frameworks imply that variability in daily life experiences has the potential to evoke longer term changes in personality over time. However, strong tests of this assumption across the adult lifespan are relatively rare. We examined the interrelations between changes in daily stress reactivity and changes in Big Five personality traits over a nearly 20-year period. Three measurement bursts from the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 2,022; 55% female) each included daily measures of stressor exposure and negative affect across eight consecutive days (yielding 33,942 days of data across 18 years of adulthood). At each wave, participants reported on their personality traits (i.e., openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism). Multilevel structural equation modeling simultaneously modeled stress reactivity at Level 1; longitudinal changes in stress reactivity at Level 2; and the interrelations between changes in stress reactivity and changes in personality traits at Level 3. Higher reactivity at baseline was associated with lower levels of extraversion and conscientiousness and higher levels of neuroticism at baseline. Further, increases in reactivity across the 18-year period were associated with declines in extraversion, agreeableness, and openness. Changes in reactivity were not related to changes in neuroticism or conscientiousness. These findings clarify how changes in daily experiences are related to broader personality changes and inform integrative frameworks of personality development across the adult lifespan. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Greater perceived control is often associated with better responses to life’s stressors. One reason for this link may be that greater perceived control is related to the ability to resolve these stressful experiences. Using longitudinal data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 1766, Mage = 56.25, SD = 12.20, 57

BACKGROUND:Stress plays a pivotal role in physical health. Although many studies have linked stress reactivity (daily within-person associations between stress exposure and negative affect) to physical health outcomes, we know surprisingly little about how changes in stress reactivity are related to changes in physical health. PURPOSE:The current study examines how change in stress reactivity over 18 years is related to changes in functional health and chronic health conditions. METHODS:Three measurement bursts from the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 2880; 55% female) each included daily measures of stressor exposure and negative affect across 8 consecutive days, yielding 33 944 days of data across 18 years of adulthood. At each wave, participants reported their functional health limitations (ie, basic activities of daily living [ADL] and instrumental activities of daily living [IADL]) and chronic health conditions. Multilevel structural equation models simultaneously modeled stress reactivity at Level 1, longitudinal changes in stress reactivity at Level 2, and the association between changes in stress reactivity and changes in functional limitations and chronic conditions at Level 3. RESULTS:Higher levels of stress reactivity at baseline were associated with more functional health limitations 18 years later (ADLs: Est. = 0.90, P = .001; IADLs: Est. = 1.78, P < .001). Furthermore, individuals who increased more in their stress reactivity across the 18-year period also showed greater increases in their functional health limitations (ADLs: Est. = 4.02, P = .017; IADLs: Est. = 5.74, P < .001) and chronic conditions (Est. = 11.17, P = .008). CONCLUSIONS:These findings highlight the strong connection between health and stress in daily life, and how they travel together across adulthood.

Background: Modern psychology has long recognized that understanding human behavior requires knowledge about a person's current context, which is often examined through daily diary studies. These studies offer ecologically valid insights into how everyday experiences-particularly stressors-affect health and well-being. The National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE) addresses a critical gap by applying this approach in a large, longitudinal, and publicly accessible study that captures daily life across adulthood. Objective: The NSDE is the largest and longest-running publicly accessible daily diary study in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to provide a guide for researchers interested in initiating similar naturalistic studies and to facilitate research using the existing NSDE data. Methods: The NSDE includes 3510 adults (aged 24-97 years), yielding over 42,000 days of information to capture how daily life changes with age, over time, and across different cohorts, and how these daily experiences predict later health and well-being. This intensive longitudinal dataset includes an 8-day daily diary collected via phone survey, spans more than 20 years, and consists of 2 longitudinal datasets. During the daily phone interviews, participants provide reports of their experiences regarding daily events, including their stressors (Daily Inventory of Stressful Events), as well as their physical health indices, emotional experiences, and cognitive health. In addition, saliva is collected concurrently with days 2-5 of the daily phone interviews (4 collections per day for 4 consecutive days) and is used to measure biomarkers such as cortisol and alpha amylase. Results: Recruitment began in 1995, with data collection occurring every 9-10 years. The most recent data collection is ongoing through 2027. All NSDE data are housed under the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study umbrella, with archived and updated datasets made available to the public on the online portal, MIDUS Colectica. Conclusions:Results from the NSDE have refined our understanding of daily stress processes. The study's timescale has provided insight into daily life for hundreds of studies, yet much more can be learned from using these data. Microlongitudinal measures and combinations of factors provide for new avenues of research and promise for better understanding of health and aging. Moreover, NSDE data can becombinedwith datasetsfrom neuroscience, biomarker, and macrolongitudinal subprojects from MIDUS to examine health-related processes. In addition to offering information on how to use the NSDE, this protocol serves as a resource for secondary data analyses and an outline for investigators wishing to replicate an intensive assessment design to other populations and research questions to continueto refine our understanding of how daily stress processesinfluence health and well-being. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/76453

The daily within-person association between stress exposure and negative affect (i.e., stress reactivity) has been shown to be predictive of adverse health and well-being outcomes. These findings typically rely on a single burst of daily assessments. Recent findings have shown that long-term changes in daily stress reactivity across adulthood are associated with changes in health outcomes. The present study extends this work by examining whether long-term changes in daily stress reactivity mediates the association between longitudinal changes in functional health and life satisfaction across 20 years. We used measurement burst data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 2,880) embedded within the MIDUS longitudinal study. Three measurement bursts were separated by ten years, with each containing daily measures of stress and affect across eight consecutive days, yielding 33,942 days of data across 20 years of adulthood. Functional health and life satisfaction were also measured every 10 years. Multilevel SEM were fit to simultaneously model daily within-person associations between stress and affect (i.e., stress reactivity) at Level 1; long-term changes in stress reactivity at Level 2; and the mediational effect of changes in stress reactivity on the pathway of changes in functional health predicting changes in life satisfaction at Level 3. Declines in functional health predicted declines in life satisfaction across 20 years (estimate=1.12, SE = 0.37, p<.001). Importantly, changes in stress reactivity mediated this effect (indirect effect=17.51, SE = 8.40, p=.02). Results suggest that the link between declines in functional health and life satisfaction may be accounted for by increases in daily stress reactivity.

Social belonging has long been conceptualized and studied as a stable individual difference characteristic, shaped by temperament, personality, and childhood experiences. In this talk, we will discuss how feelings of social connection vary on a daily basis, and how these variations are related to stressor reactivity. Using eight days of daily diary data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 2,022), we examine how daily social connection is related to negative affect experienced in response to a stressor in a national sample of midlife and later adulthood. Each day, participants reported whether they had experienced a daily stressor (e.g., an argument, a stressor at work, a stressor at home), and the extent to which they felt a sense of belonging across the past 24 hours. We used multilevel modelling to examine how levels of daily social belonging were related to changes in negative affect on days when people responded to stressors, after adjusting for average levels of positive affect, stressor exposure, and parental warmth. In a model examining the main effects, greater sense of belonging was related to lower levels of negative affect ( γ =-.022, p<.001), and stressor exposure was related to higher negative affect (γ =.127, p<.001). However, the addition of the within-person interaction indicated that negative affect was lower on stressor days when people felt a higher sense of belonging (γ = -0.065, p<.001). Results suggest that daily connection is important for well-being and how we respond to stressors in daily life.

Social connection is central to many aspects of healthy aging, including increased emotional well-being and a reduced risk of mortality. Existing studies examining the link between social connection and health typically conceptualize social connection as a static, trait-like variable. Yet similar to other daily experiences, feeling socially connected fluctuates from day-to-day, and may provide additional insight into how social connection and health are linked. The present research examines three aspects of daily social connection: one structural (positive interactions) and two related to quality: feeling a sense of belonging; and responsivity (i.e., how sense of belonging varies in response to a positive interaction). Using eight days of daily diary data (N = 2,022), we examine the psychometric properties and utility of these three aspects of daily social connection. Each day, participants reported whether they had a positive interaction; their sense of belonging; and their closeness to others over the past 24 hours. Multilevel factor analyses revealed that daily feelings of belonging and closeness to others reflect a reliable unified social connection construct at both the within- and between-person levels (between-person factor loadings=.98, .87; within-person loadings=.67, .65, respectively; reliability=.92). Nearly 40% of the variability in daily social connection is within-person. Furthermore, these aspects of daily social connection demonstrated convergent validity to global indicators of social well-being. We discuss the value of utilizing daily social connection measures to effectively capture experiences of social connection within and between individuals, and how they can be used for future research examining the links between social connection and health.

Studying modifiable psychosocial correlates of cognitive health in daily life is crucial to inform targets for dementia prevention. Perceived control is an important psychosocial resource for cognitive health. Prior work, however, focuses largely on global aspects of control, ignoring influences of more dynamic aspects of control associated with specific experiences in daily life (i.e., daily stressor control). We used data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 1,236, Mage=67.54, SE = 10.34, 57.38% Female) to address this gap and examine daily associations among stressor control and memory lapses. Over eight consecutive evenings, respondents reported perceived control over interpersonal stressors they had experienced and two types of memory lapses (retrospective, prospective) as well as the impact of these lapses each day (irritation, interference). We used multilevel modeling with statistical adjustment for number of stressors, gender, education, race, and global control. On average, people with higher stressor control reported significantly lower irritation ratings from retrospective memory lapses (Est.=-0.47, SE = 0.15, p<.01). Within-person stressor control and age significantly interacted (Est.=-0.03, SE = 0.01, p=.01) such that days when stressor control was higher than usual were associated with less irritation from prospective memory lapses only among comparatively older adults (Est.=-0.66, SE = 0.31, p<.05). Results indicate that daily stressor control may serve as a psychosocial resource related to less irritation when forgetting past information and future intentions. We discuss the value of promoting perceived control over daily interpersonal stressors to protect against detrimental impacts of memory lapses and encourage healthy cognitive aging in daily life.

To better understand age-related processes tied to well-being, the current work explores how fluctuations in well-being in daily life differ based on age and various well-being domains. Additionally, this research investigates whether the magnitude of concurrent within-person changes in well-being domains varies based on age. Accordingly, the present study called upon daily diary data from two age-diverse samples: a young adult sample (N = 144; age: M = 19.56, SD = 2.09, range = 17-28) and older adult sample (N = 81; age: M = 69.04, SD = 9.06, range = 55-94). Mixed effect location scale models suggested that older adults on average scored higher than young adults on daily self-acceptance, engagement, sense of purpose, autonomy, competence, personal growth, relatedness, vitality, and positive affect; scored lower on negative affect; and did not score differently on life satisfaction. Meanwhile, young adults experienced more daily within-person variability in all 11 well-being domains. Finally, multigroup, multilevel structural equation models showed that, at the between-person level, negative affect was more strongly tied to other well-being domains in young adults, while positive affect and vitality were more strongly tied to other well-being domains in older adults. At the within-person level, changes in one daily well-being domain were more strongly associated with changes in another 65% of the time for young adults and 33% of the time for older adults. The present study highlights differences in daily well-being processes tied to age and the larger role that daily events and experiences may play in shaping the short-term experiences of well-being in young adults' daily lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived control is an important psychosocial resource for health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Global control (i.e., overall perceived control) decreases over time in studies following people every few years to upwards of 10 years. Changes across wider intervals of the lifespan, however, have yet to be examined. Further, how perceived control changes for specific aspects of daily life, such as stressors, remains comparatively less clear. Using data from the MIDUS National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE, N=1,940, M=56.25 years, SD=12.20, 57% Female), we examined longitudinal changes in global control across 20 years and daily stressor control across 10 years. Global control was assessed in the first wave of the NSDE (~1996). In follow-up waves, conducted in ~2008 and ~2017, participants again reported their global control, but also reported their perceived control over stressors they experience across eight consecutive days. Longitudinal analyses revealed differential change trajectories for global control across 20 years and stressor control across 10 years (p’s<.001). Global control declined for younger and older adults, but stayed relatively stable for individuals in midlife. The rate of decline in daily stressor control was steeper than the decline in global control and did not vary by age at baseline. In addition, declines were amplified among individuals with higher global control at baseline. Results suggest that daily stressor control is a specific aspect of control beliefs that follows a different rate of change than global control.

Abstract Loneliness impedes healthy aging. Previous research shows robust findings between loneliness and poor health, including stress-related diseases and conditions (e.g., cardiovascular disease). Less is known about how loneliness experienced in daily life relates to indices of health, such as diurnal cortisol level patterns. The slope of diurnal cortisol shows a peak upon waking from sleep and a nadir close to bedtime; however, specific rhythms of cortisol slopes fluctuate in daily life. Emerging research suggests that capturing the dynamic range of diurnal cortisol in daily life could be an important marker of allostatic load (i.e., the cumulative burden of chronic stress), with a compressed range indicating dysregulation and a wider range suggesting a more adaptive cortisol profile. In the current research, we investigated whether daily self-reported loneliness related to the dynamic range of diurnal cortisol (calculated via 4 days of salivary cortisol collection, 4 times a day) and explored age differences across the lifespan. Data come from a national daily assessment study with participants ranging between 25-75 years old who completed 8 days of daily diary assessments on loneliness and other factors in daily life. Findings from the current analyses will be presented in the context of how the dynamic range of cortisol might serve as a potential mechanism for outcomes related to loneliness in later life.

Affective reactivity to stress is a person-level measurement of how well an individual copes with daily stressors. A common method of measuring affective reactivity entails the estimation of within-person differences of either positive or negative affect on days with and without stressors present. Individuals more reactive to common stressors, as evidenced by affective reactivity measurements, have been shown to have increased levels of circulating pro-inflammatory markers. While affective reactivity has previously been associated with inflammatory markers, the upstream mechanistic links underlying these associations are unknown. Using data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Refresher study (N = 195; 52% female; 84% white), we quantified daily stress processes over 10 days and determined individuals' positive and negative affective reactivities to stressors. We then examined affective reactivity association with peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) gene expression of the immune-related conserved transcriptional response to adversity. Results indicated that individuals with a greater decrease in positive affect to daily stressors exhibited heightened PBMC JUNB expression after Bonferroni corrections (p-adjusted < 0.05). JUNB encodes a protein that acts as a transcription factor which regulates many aspects of the immune response, including inflammation and cell proliferation. Due to its critical role in the activation of macrophages and maintenance of CD4+ T-cells during inflammation, JUNB may serve as a potential upstream mechanistic target for future studies of the connection between affective reactivity and inflammatory processes. Overall, our findings provide evidence that affective reactivity to stress is associated with levels of immune cell gene expression.

BACKGROUND:In addition to having higher negative affect and lower positive affect overall, depressed individuals exhibit heightened affective reactivity to external stimuli than non-depressed individuals. Sleep may contribute to day-to-day fluctuations in depressed individuals, given that sleep disturbance is a common symptom of depression. Yet, little is known about changes in daily affect as a function of nightly sleep duration in depressed adults and non-depressed adults. The current study examined whether and how naturally-occurring sleep duration is associated with negative and positive affect, and how these associations differ between depressed vs. non-depressed adults. METHODS:Data were drawn from the second wave of the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE), a daily diary project of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. The sample of 2,012 adults (Mage=56.5; 57% female; 84% white) completed eight-day diary interviews via telephone on their daily experiences including nightly sleep duration and negative and positive affect. They also completed assessments of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short form, and depressed status was determined based on DSM-III. Multilevel regression models with linear, quadratic, and cubic terms of sleep duration examined the nonlinear relationship between nightly sleep duration and daily affect. Interaction terms with depression status were added to examine differences between depressed and non-depressed adults. RESULTS:Depressed adults exhibited significant and greater fluctuations in daily affect as a function of nightly sleep duration than non-depressed adults. Specifically, the degree of decrease in positive affect and increase in negative affect was greater when depressed adults slept 2 or more hours less or longer than their usual sleep hours. Non-depressed adults exhibited relatively stable daily affect regardless of their nightly sleep hours. CONCLUSIONS:Sleep duration is nonlinearly associated with affect in daily lives of depressed adults, highlighting that both having too little sleep and excessive sleep are associated with adverse daily affective well-being. Implementing sleep interventions to promote an appropriate sleep duration may help improve daily affect among depressed adults.

Abstract Studying modifiable psychosocial risk factors for dementia is crucial to inform approaches for dementia prevention, especially among those with lower neighborhood quality. Perceived control is an important psychosocial resource for cognitive health. Most prior work, however, focuses exclusively on global aspects of control, ignoring influences of more dynamic aspects of control over specific experiences in daily life, such as daily stressor control. Therefore, we used data from the Midlife in the United States study and the National Study of Daily Experiences (N=1,651, Mage=62.09, SE=12.11, 56.65% Female) to address this gap and examine associations of stressor control and neighborhood quality with cognitive function. Over two waves of eight consecutive days of data collection, respondents reported perceived control over interpersonal and non-interpersonal stressors they had experienced. Respondents also completed assessments of neighborhood quality, executive function (EF), and episodic memory (EM). We employed linear regressions to assess concurrent (wave 2) and prospective (ten years later at wave 3) associations of stressor control and neighborhood quality with cognitive function. Concurrent associations between better neighborhood quality and better cognitive function (EF, EM) were amplified among those with lower interpersonal stressor control. No prospective associations with cognitive function ten years later emerged. Results indicate that better neighborhood quality may be beneficial for cognitive health, especially for individuals with lower perceived control over interpersonal stressors such as arguments and avoided arguments. We discuss the value of promoting better neighborhood quality as an important social determinant of cognitive health and aging when psychosocial resources are comparatively limited.