How people respond to stress influences their risk for psychological maladjustment, especially anxiety and depression. Identifying patterns of stress responding that may be problematic, as well as vulnerability factors for engaging in these response styles, is important for informing appropriate prevention and treatment. Chapter 1 investigated the relationship between stress sensitivity, a transdiagnostic risk factor for anxiety and depression, and difficulties disengaging from stressful stimuli. We enrolled a college student sample given rising concerns over stress-related mental health problems in this population. We created and validated a 400-word novel lexical stimulus set specific to college students. Using this stimulus set in a modified dot-probe task, we showed that stress sensitivity is associated with quicker disengagement from all stimuli, not just stress stimuli, in stressful contexts. This work highlights the complex nature of attentional bias toward stress and provides a novel tool for further investigation of stress responding in the increasingly vulnerable college population. Chapter 2 used ecological momentary assessment to investigate inert (persistent) responding to stressful events in daily life. In a mixed sample of adults with generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder, we examined how long the affective and cognitive responses experienced immediately after a stressful event predicted subsequent responding. Stress response inertia was evident for a period lasting up to 4.5 hours after a stressful event. Individuals with higher trait negative emotionality and greater anxiety and depression severity exhibited more prolonged stress responding. Collectively, these studies demonstrate the importance of examining stress responding beyond reactivity alone, identify speed of disengagement and response inertia as important patterns of stress responding associated with markers for maladaptive anxiety and depression, and offer clinical considerations in light of these findings.