StressGen - Stress in daily life - a gene-environment interaction study - FHSE

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 May 2024
Duration in months:

36
Funding:

University of Luxembourg
Principal Investigator(s):

Robert KUMSTA

About

How does daily stress influence our emotions and what do our genes have to do with it? Psychological stress comes in many flavors. One major source of stress comes from psychosocial influences we are confronted with in our daily life, such as interpersonal conflict, work-related stress, or loneliness. There is large heterogeneity in the way we deal with stress. Given that so-called micro stressors (or daily hassles) have been shown to predict onset and course of mental disorders, it is important to understand why and how people differ in their susceptibility to external events. The aim of this project is to thus to understand how the exposure to work-related stress, social stress and other daily hassles influence emotions and the change of emotions across the day using an Ecological Momentary Assessment design. We will also investigate the role of genetic variability in the association between stress exposure and changes in affect using polygenic scores for stress-related disorders as moderators.