Fig 1.
Radial chart depicting the top 10 psychosocial stressors among emerging adults based on Holmes and Rahe’s Life Change Units (LCUs).
Each arc segment represents a life event, with bar height reflecting its stress weight. LCU values are displayed above each bar, and the color legend identifies corresponding life events. This visual highlights the cumulative burden of common stressors in early adulthood.
Fig 2.
Multisystem coordination model underlying the simulation study.
This figure depicts the theoretical framework in which clustered psychosocial stress influences biological synchrony between cortisol and CRP, which then regulates emotional recovery. Buffering capacity moderates this pathway, and simulated data are used to generate system trajectories under varying stress and coordination conditions.
Table 1.
Interpretation of Total Life Change Unit (LCU) scores.
Fig 3.
Distribution of cortisol–CRP synchrony index.
This violin plot visualizes the distribution of cortisol–CRP synchrony values across all simulated participants. The shape represents the estimated probability density, while the embedded boxplot indicates the interquartile range and median. Overlayed jittered points represent individual participants, emphasizing dispersion and clustering. The distribution shows moderate variability with no dominant trend toward positive or negative synchrony, highlighting diverse multisystem responses to clustered psychosocial stress.
Fig 4.
Mood recovery trajectories by buffering capacity.
Line plot showing mean mood scores ± SD across recovery phases (Subacute, Recovery, Late Recovery, Stabilization) for each buffering group (indexed 0.20–0.43). Participants with higher buffering capacity (darker shades) exhibited more stable and accelerated mood recovery trajectories. Greater dispersion in lower buffering groups reflects delayed or incomplete recovery.
Table 2.
Multiple regression results predicting mean mood recovery.
Fig 5.
Mood recovery across binned cortisol–CRP synchrony levels.
Mean mood recovery scores are plotted across ten bins of the Cortisol–CRP Synchrony Index, with each point representing the average mood level for participants within that synchrony range. Error bars indicate the standard error of the mean. The U-shaped trend suggests that both strongly positive and strongly negative synchrony are associated with better mood outcomes, whereas values near zero are linked to diminished emotional recovery. This non-linear association highlights the role of multisystem coupling in affective adaptation under stress.