The influence of between and within-person hope among emergency responders on daily affect in a stress and coping model

• We examine effects of hope on daily affect.
• Between-person hope was related to increased daily positive affect.
• Within-person hope interacted with stress and coping to predict positive affect.
• 3-way of within-person hope, stress, and emotion coping predicted negative affect.

This study reports on daily hope, coping, stress, and affect among 84 fire service members who completed a 21-day diary. Multilevel modeling showed that between-person hope was related to higher positive affect. Three-way interactions were found for within-person hope, stress, and daily coping in the prediction of daily affect. When under high stress and if low in hope, more emotion–expression coping predicted higher next day positive affect whereas if high in hope, more problem-focused coping predicted more positive affect. Within-person hope, stress, and emotion–expression coping interacted to predict negative affect. Findings for the prediction of negative affect necessitate further research to determine if the nature of coping under low hope and low stress is qualitatively distinct from high hope states.