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Technology

(PS10-A4) Prospective Associations of Daily Affective Dynamics with Depression, Generalized Anxiety, and Social Anxiety Symptoms

Saturday, November 18, 2023
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PST
Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7
Prior research has linked high negative affect from ecological momentary assessment (EMA) with symptoms such as depression, generalized anxiety, and social anxiety. However, findings regarding the relationships between these symptoms with variability in daily affective experiences have been mixed. These inconsistencies may stem, in part, from limitations of past literature, including reliance on small samples and a failure to consider dependencies in EMA data due to repeated measures within subjects. In the present study, we used multilevel modeling to test the relationships of individual and group-level differences in daily affect and their variability with depression, generalized anxiety, and social anxiety. Over the course of three 16-week waves, participants (N = 898; 75.2% female, 24.8% male; Mage = 40.9 [SDage = 12.7] years) responded to EMA to assess their mood two to three times per day and completed measures of depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-8 [PHQ-8]), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 [GAD-7]), and social anxiety (Social Phobia Inventory [SPIN]) every three weeks. To recruit a sample with a range of clinical symptom severity, we over-sampled for depression symptoms on the PHQ-8. At the between-person level, people experiencing higher average daily negative affect were more likely to report higher clinical symptoms (PHQ-8: β = .477, p < .001; GAD-7: β = .421, p < .001; SPIN: β = .279, p < .001). Similar effects were found for between-person average daily variability in affect (PHQ-8: β = .170, p < .001; GAD-7: β = .179, p < .001; SPIN: β = .043, p < .001). At the within-person level, we again saw that when people experienced higher negative affect relative to their own average, they were more likely to report elevated symptoms on the PHQ-8 (β = .652, p < .001), GAD-7 (β = .662, p < .001), and SPIN (β = .415, p < .001). However, there was a dissociation for social anxiety compared to depression and generalized anxiety on within-person affective variability. Specifically, increased affective variability relative to one’s own average was linked with both PHQ-8 (β = .107, p < .001) and GAD-7 (β = .128, p < .001), but not SPIN (β = .027, p = .077). Our findings suggest that variations within a person’s affect may differentially predict their experience of clinical symptoms. Specifically, person-specific increases in negative affect, and increases in affective variability, may signal depression and generalized anxiety. This potentially reflects the trait-like experience of negative affect and difficulties coping with daily stress in these symptoms. Conversely, increased negative affect, but not increased person-specific affective variability, may signal social anxiety. This may reflect that changes in affect are more situation-specific (e.g., in response to social situations) for people with social anxiety. These findings hold promise for the use of affect monitoring as a predictive tool in the deployment of personalized digital mental health interventions, which can serve population mental health needs at scale.