Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
Ann Behav Med. 2018 Nov 12;52(12):1060-1072. doi: 10.1093/abm/kay009.
Both exposure to stress and perseverative cognitions (PCs)-repetitive cognitive representations of real or imagined stressors-are linked with poor psychological health. Yet, stress exposure and PCs are correlated, thus potentially obscuring any unique effects.
The purpose of this paper is to concurrently test associations between stress exposure and PCs and psychological health to examine the independent relationship of each with psychological health. Moreover, we examined whether these relationships are similar across sex, age, and race.
An adult community sample (n = 302) completed a measure of stress exposure, three PCs scales, and questionnaires assessing self-reported psychological health, including emotional well-being, vitality, social functioning, role limitations due to personal problems, subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and poor sleep quality.
Structural equation modeling was used to test a model in which both stress exposure and PCs predict psychological health. PCs consistently predicted all the psychological health outcomes, but stress was largely unrelated to the outcomes despite bivariate correlations suggesting a relationship. A follow-up model identified indirect effects of stress exposure on psychological health via PCs. Results were fairly consistent regardless of one's sex, age, or race.
PCs robustly predicted all of the psychological health outcomes, intimating PCs as a common pathway to poor psychological health. Results have implications for stress interventions, including the need to address PCs after experiencing stress.
压力暴露和固执认知（PCs）——对真实或想象的压力源的重复认知表现——都与心理健康不良有关。然而，压力暴露和 PCs 是相关的，因此可能会掩盖任何独特的影响。
本文的目的是同时检验压力暴露和 PCs 与心理健康之间的关联，以检验每个因素与心理健康的独立关系。此外，我们还检查了这些关系是否在性别、年龄和种族方面存在差异。
一个成人社区样本（n=302）完成了一项压力暴露测量、三项 PCs 量表以及评估自我报告心理健康的问卷，包括情绪健康、活力、社会功能、因个人问题导致的角色限制、主观幸福感、抑郁症状和睡眠质量差。
结构方程模型用于测试一个模型，其中压力暴露和 PCs 都预测心理健康。PCs 始终预测所有的心理健康结果，尽管双变量相关性表明存在关系，但压力与结果基本无关。后续模型确定了压力暴露通过 PCs 对心理健康的间接影响。无论一个人的性别、年龄或种族如何，结果都相当一致。
PCs 强有力地预测了所有的心理健康结果，暗示了 PCs 是导致心理健康不良的共同途径。这些结果对压力干预有影响，包括在经历压力后需要解决 PCs 的问题。
