Flourishing and its Associations with Affective Reactivity and Recovery to Daily Stress

There are marked individual differences in the impact of daily stress on health. We use trait measures of well-being, here quantified as flourishing, and daily reports of stress and negative mood to test (i) the moderating effects of flourishing on affective reactivity and recovery in response to increases in daily stress. To examine whether high curiosity acts as a resource to diminish stress effects, we additionally test (ii) the association between flourishing and curiosity and (iii) the associations between day’s curiosity and both affective reactivity and recovery. We then test for (iv) prospective associations between affective reactivity and recovery and change in flourishing over 3 months. People high in flourishing show lower affective reactivity and augmented recovery. Participants high in flourishing exhibit more frequent days of high curiosity and high curiosity buffers the effects of stress on day’s mood. Finally, greater affective reactivity is associated with longitudinal decreases in flourishing.