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. 2025 Apr;48(2):341-348.
doi: 10.1007/s10865-024-00537-8. Epub 2024 Dec 31.

A remote examination of acute stress responses: examining the influence of psychological resilience

Briana N DeAngelis  1 , Dorothy K Hatsukami  2 , Sharon S Allen  3 , Mustafa al'Absi  4
Affiliations

A remote examination of acute stress responses: examining the influence of psychological resilience

Briana N DeAngelis et al. J Behav Med. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Background: A few studies have examined psychological resilience as a predictor of physiological responses to acute stress; however, no studies have directly examined psychological resilience as a moderator of subjective responses to acute stress.

Methods: Adults were recruited to participate in an acute stress response study that was conducted remotely. Demographics, psychological resilience, nicotine use and desire to quit, and information related to cannabis use were measured during a medical screening session. Positive, stressed, and anxious moods were measured during baseline rest prior to acute stress, after performing acute stress tasks, and after 30- and 55-minutes of post-stress recovery during an acute stress session.

Results: Acute stress was successfully induced during the remote audio-video stress session. There were significant increases in stressed and anxious moods and significant decreases in positive mood immediately after the acute stress tasks, followed by a return to baseline levels of these moods. Moreover, psychological resilience was inversely related to stressed and anxious moods reported at baseline and immediately after acute stress. In addition, psychological resilience was positively related to positive mood.

Conclusion: The results are consistent with previous research linking psychological resilience to general reports of positive and negative affect. Further, the results demonstrate, for the first time, that psychological resilience may be a significant predictor of negative mood immediately after acute stress.

Keywords: Acute stress; Anxious mood; Psychological resilience; Stressed mood.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: The Institutional Review Board at the University of Minnesota reviewed and approved of all procedures in the reported studies, which were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and subsequent standards that are held as institutional standards. Consent to participate: All participants provided informed consent to participate in this research. Consent for publication: All participants provided consent for publication of their data without identifiers, as reported in this manuscript. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no financial nor non-financial conflicts of interest.

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