The purpose of this study was to examine the interaction of daily concurrent positive interpersonal events (PIE) and negative interpersonal events (NIE) on the daily experience of negative affect and fatigue in a sample of men and women with rheumatoid arthritis. Two hypotheses were made. The blunting hypothesis predicted that NIE would nullify the beneficial influence of PIE on outcome measures, and the buffering hypothesis predicted that PIE would offset the adverse influence of NIE.
Participants completed up to 30 consecutive daily diaries. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the day-to-day dependencies among study variables.
The primary outcomes were daily negative affect and fatigue.
In support of the blunting hypothesis, on days when NIE were diminished, PIE were associated with a greater reduction in fatigue. In contrast, consistent with the buffering hypothesis, on days when PIE were elevated, NIE were associated with a lesser increase in negative affect.
The examination of concurrent PIE and NIE provides a unique perspective on the role of interpersonal events in affective and physiological outcomes, beyond that which can be gained from the examination of either type of event in isolation.