What This Means
This study asked how different kinds of stress and personal resilience tend to occur together in people's lives, and how these combinations relate to the way people handle emotions. Researchers surveyed 329 adults online about past trauma, social standing, current perceived stress, resilience, emotion regulation, and stigma about being emotional. Statistical grouping revealed three types of people: those with low stress and high resilience, those with high current stress and low resilience, and those with high past/long-term stress and moderate resilience.
People in the high current stress, low resilience group reported the poorest ability to regulate their emotions compared with the other two groups. Both higher-stress groups also reported more stigma around emotionality (negative views about showing or having emotions) than the low stress, high resilience group.
This research suggests that looking at stress and resilience together, rather than separately, may help identify who is most likely to struggle with emotion-related processes linked to health. Because the sample was mostly White, non-Hispanic, and relied on self-report at a single time point, the findings may not apply to everyone and cannot show cause and effect.