Purpose in life and stress: Momentary associations from a micro-longitudinal study.

Abstract

Purpose in life is an aspect of well-being associated with less subjective stress. The present research sought to expand this literature by testing the association between both dispositional and momentary purpose with stress in daily life using a micro-longitudinal study design. Participants (N=303) reported their dispositional purpose at baseline and reported their momentary purpose and stress three times a day for 8days. Between-person, dispositional purpose was associated with less momentary stress across the 8days tested with linear regression (β=-0.29, 95% CI=-0.39, -18, p<0.001); it was unrelated to variability in stress (β=0.05, 95% CI=-0.05, 0.14, p=0.310). In contrast, the within-person analysis tested with multilevel modelling indicated that in moments when participants felt more purpose-driven than their average, they felt more stressed (b=0.09, 95% CI=0.06, 0.12, SE=0.01, p<0.001). This association was slightly stronger among participants with relatively lower dispositional purpose (binteraction=-0.04, SE=0.02, 95% CI=-0.08, -0.01, p=0.032). This study replicated the negative association between dispositional purpose and subjective stress when stress was measured at moments in daily life. It also found that feeling more purpose-driven than usual in the moment is stressful, a counterintuitive finding that, if replicated, suggests that striving for purpose can be stressful in the moment, even if feeling more purposeful in general is associated with lower stress.