Unique effects of depressive and anxious symptomatology on daily stress and coping

We used a 14-day diary design to evaluate the unique effects of college students' depressive and anxious symptomatology on the occurrence of specific types of daily events, primary and secondary appraisals, use of specific coping strategies, and end-of-day mood. Initial depression was associated with more negative secondary appraisals, less frequent use of social support coping, muted positive affective reactions to low stress ratings and high coping efficacy ratings, and stronger reductions in positive affect in response to emotion expression coping. In contrast, initial anxiety was associated with less frequent reporting of academic stressors and less effective use of problem-focused coping. These findings suggest that depression and anxiety have unique effects on the daily stress and coping process, and they support the construct validity of Clark and Watson's (1991) tripartite model of depression and anxiety.