Daily stressors facilitate giving and receiving of emotional support in adulthood.

The aims of the present study were to examine whether daily stressors are associated with engagement in emotional support and whether these associations differ by gender. Analyses were conducted using Wave 2 of Midlife in the United States data and its subproject National Study of Daily Experiences. The sample consisted of adults aged 33 to 84 (N = 1,622). Using multinomial multilevel analysis, we looked at the associations between lagged and concurrent daily stressors with engagement in emotional support. For concurrent associations, people who experienced stressors were more likely to both give and receive, solely give, and solely receive emotional support compared with those who did not have any stressors. Women were more likely to engage in both giving and receiving of emotional support compared with men when they experienced stressors during the same day. In terms of the lagged associations, both men and women who experienced stressors during the previous day were more likely to both give and receive emotional support the next day compared with those who did not experience any stressors during the previous day. These results suggest that experiencing daily stressors facilitates giving and receiving of emotional support at daily level in adulthood.