Increased chronic stress predicts greater emotional negativity bias and poorer social skills but not cognitive functioning in healthy adults

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Chronically stressed individuals report deficits spanning cognitive and emotional functioning. However, limitations to clinical populations and measures of stress have impeded the generalisability and scope of results. This study investigated whether chronic stress predicted cognitive and emotional functioning, and whether these relationships differed between males and females, in a large representative sample of healthy participants.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Method: 1883 healthy adults sampled from the Brain Resource International Database reported stress using the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Participants then completed a cognitive and emotional assessment battery (IntegNeuro), as well as questionnaires related to sleep, emotional functioning, and self-regulation.

Results: In contrast to previously reported results, chronic stress did not predict cognitive functioning. However, higher stress predicted a greater negativity bias and poorer social skills, confirming previous research identifying these links.

Conclusions: Cognitive deficits related to stress are absent in healthy participants when stress is measured using the 21-items Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Identifying how chronic stress is associated with aspects of emotional functioning can lead to personalized interventions for individuals to better manage the negative outcomes resulting from stress.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronic stress
• cognition
• emotion
• self-regulation
• gender

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the Brain Research And Integrative Neuroscience Network (BRAINnet) (http://www.BRAINnet.net), the network of researchers governed by the nonprofit BRAINnet Foundation to provide access to the Brain Resource International Database.

Disclosure statement

T.A.B, D.M.P, and E.G. are employees of Total Brain Ltd. T.A.B. and D.M.P. hold stock options in Total Brain Ltd. E.G. is the CMO at Total Brain, and holds significant equity and stock options in the company (however, scientific decisions about access to the Brain Resource International Database are made via an independently administered network of scientists; BRAINnet, www.brainnet.net). H.H. and G.T. have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

ORCID

Taylor A. Braund http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8408-9070

Additional information

Funding

T.A.B was supported by a NSW Health PhD scholarship.