Outcome-oriented resilience moderates the relationship between emotion-focused coping style and negative affect: evidence from a daily diary approach

Due to the frequent occurrence of global threats in recent years, it is necessary for researchers to closely examine how resilience affects poor mental health. However, there have been no longitudinal studies investigating whether resilience moderates the association between emotion-focused coping style and negative affect. Based on this premise, we examined the psychological mechanisms connecting resilience with health by investigating daily stressors, emotion-focused coping style, resilience and negative affect. Using daily diary approach, this study investigated the impact of daily stressors, emotion-focused coping style, and outcome-oriented resilience on negative affect among 69 university students with a mean age of 19.76 (SD = 0.97) in a 30-day study. Furthermore, we employed the residual approach to operationalize resilience as an outcome and investigated its moderating effect on the relationships between daily stressors, emotion-focused coping style and negative affect. Hierarchical linear regression analysis revealed that daily stressors, emotion-focused coping style, and outcome-oriented resilience significantly predicted daily negative affect. Additionally, interindividual differences in outcome-oriented resilience moderated the relationship between emotion-focused coping style and negative affect but not the association between daily stressors and negative affect. Participants with higher levels of resilience exhibited greater reactivity to negative affect when utilizing emotion-focused coping style, as opposed to those with lower levels of resilience. This research improves understanding of the psychological mechanisms linking outcome-oriented resilience to mental health.