The relation between short-term emotion dynamics and psychological well-being: A meta-analysis.
Abstract
Not only how good or bad people feel on average, but also how their feelings fluctuate across time is crucial for psychological health. The last 2 decades have witnessed a surge in research linking various patterns of short-term emotional change to adaptive or maladaptive psychological functioning, often with conflicting results. A meta-analysis was performed to identify consistent relationships between patterns of short-term emotion dynamics-including patterns reflecting emotional variability (measured in terms of within-person standard deviation of emotions across time), emotional instability (measured in terms of the magnitude of consecutive emotional changes), and emotional inertia of emotions over time (measured in terms of autocorrelation)-and relatively stable indicators of psychological well-being or psychopathology. We determined how such relationships are moderated by the type of emotional change, type of psychological well-being or psychopathology involved, valence of the emotion, and methodological factors. A total of 793 effect sizes were identified from 79 articles (N = 11,381) and were subjected to a 3-level meta-analysis. The results confirmed that overall, low psychological well-being co-occurs with more variable (overall ρ̂ = -.178), unstable (overall ρ̂ = -.205), but also more inert (overall ρ̂ = -.151) emotions. These effect sizes were stronger when involving negative compared with positive emotions. Moreover, the results provided evidence for consistency…
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The three-level random effects meta-analytic model allows all relevant effects reported in each primary study to be included, preserving all relevant information.
“A major advantage of this three-level approach to meta-analysis is that all relevant effects reported in each primary study can be included, implying that all relevant information is preserved.”
From Risk Factors for School Absenteeism and Dropout: A Meta-Analytic Review (2019) · cites this paper as Houben et al. 2015
A multilevel random effects model was applied to account for interdependency of effect sizes and differences in sample size.
“To deal with this interdependency of effect sizes and the differences in sample size, we applied a multilevel random effects model (Houben, Van Den Noortgate, & Kuppens, 2015; Van Den Bussche, Van Den Noortgate, & Reynvoet, 2009; Viechtbauer, 2010; Viechtbauer, 2010).”
From Does Natural Mentoring Matter? A Multilevel Meta‐analysis on the Association Between Natural Mentoring and Youth Outcomes (2018) · cites this paper as Houben, Van Den Noortgate, & Kuppens, 2015
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- Authors
- Houben, M., Van Den Noortgate, W., & Kuppens, P.
- Affiliations
- KU Leuven (BE)
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 2015-07
- Volume
- 141
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 901-930
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W2003393830
- Cited by
- 1,043
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 114 · 2025: 143 · 2024: 137 · 2023: 114 · 2022: 86 · 2021: 122 · 2020: 105 · 2019: 67 · 2018: 70 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 75.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Research Fund of KU Leuven - University of Leuven (GOA/15/003; OT/11/031)
- Belgian government (IAP/P7/06)
- Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- emotional variability, neuroticism, emotional inertia, psychological well-being, psychopathology, negative emotions, positive emotions, mood fluctuations, psychological flourishing, emotional functioning
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Mental Disorders, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Problem Solving, Self Concept, Young Adult
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