Acta Psychopathologica Acesso livre

Abstrato

Rumination as a mediator and moderator of the relationship between unpleasant events and unhappy mood: A daily diary study

Paul E. Jose

There is a lack of research on whether and how stressful events trigger ruminative episodes and whether and how rumination, in turn, exerts a perpetuating influence on daily negative mood. To answer these questions, an experience sampling study was conducted with 101 undergraduate students who reported momentary unpleasant events, rumination, and unhappy mood once a day for 30 days. Our findings showed, as expected, that daily rumination mediated the relationship between daily unpleasant events and daily unhappy mood. A significant daily moderation finding was also obtained: rumination exacerbated reports of unhappy mood at low levels of unpleasant events. Day-to-day stability was noted for momentary rumination and unhappy mood, and these two variables also exhibited a weak bidirectional relationship across contiguous days. Finally, a moderated mediation analysis showed that individuals who reported high trait rumination evidenced a stronger indirect effect in the daily mediation pattern. The new findings suggest that: 1) rumination functions as a daily mediator and moderator of the baseline relationship between stress and depression; 2) rumination perpetuates negative mood over time; and 3) rumination is a stronger predictor of everyday negative mood than stressful events. These findings illuminate how psychopathological interpretations of everyday life experiences can lead to negative mood states in a community sample.