Psychological resilience predicts decreases in pain catastrophizing through positive emotions

Anthony D. Ong, Alex J. Zautra, M. Carrington Reid

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

160 Scopus citations

Abstract

The study used a daily process design to examine the role of psychological resilience and positive emotions in the day-to-day experience of pain catastrophizing. A sample of 95 men and women with chronic pain completed initial assessments of neuroticism, psychological resilience, and demographic data, and then completed short diaries regarding pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, and positive and negative emotions every day for 14 consecutive days. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that independent of level of neuroticism, negative emotions, pain intensity, income, and age, high-resilient individuals reported greater positive emotions and exhibited lower day-to-day pain catastrophizing compared with low-resilient individuals. Mediation analyses revealed that psychologically resilient individuals rebound from daily pain catastrophizing through experiences of positive emotion. Implications for research on psychological resilience, pain catastrophizing, and positive emotions are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)516-523
Number of pages8
JournalPsychology and aging
Volume25
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2010

Keywords

  • Catastrophizing
  • Pain
  • Positive emotions
  • Psychological resilience

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Aging
  • Geriatrics and Gerontology

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