Investors often turn to dividend stocks during periods of rising inflation and slowing economic growth because they provide income streams when capital gains growth is difficult to come by. The strategy is sound as the asset managers at Hartford Funds found dividends contributed 40% to the total return of the S&P 500 index over 91 years, stretching back to 1930. While there have been two decades during that period when stocks generated negative returns, dividend stocks still generated growth even in those challenging periods.