Life events, fitness, hardiness, and health: A simultaneous analysis of proposed stress-resistance effects.

The effects of exercise participation, self-perceived fitness level, and dispositional hardiness for promoting stress resistance were examined in a sample of 373 college students. Self-report measures of stressful life experience and recent physical illness were positively correlated, and fitness and hardiness were negatively correlated with illness as expected. Multiple regression analyses indicated that neither fitness nor hardiness provided a stress-moderator effect because neither was found to significantly interact with stress in the prediction of illness scores. Structural equation analyses suggested that hardiness may affect health indirectly by first influencing either the occurrence or subjective interpretation of stressful life events. No direct effect on health was found for exercise participation, although exercise may reduce illness indirectly by improving fitness. Implications for the multivariate modeling of proposed stress-resistance-enhancing effects are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hardiness, Type A behavior, and the stress–illness relation in working women.

Hardiness has been proposed as a stress-resistance resource in maintaining health. This construct has been shown to act in conjunction with the Type A behavior pattern in affecting illness. In this study, we examined this relation in women (N?=?82) with the use of the Structured Interview and the Jenkins Activity Survey to assess Type A behavior. As expected, there was a strong stress–illness association. However, there were no hardiness main effects nor interactions between stress, Type A behavior, and hardiness. Hardiness was significantly associated with age, education level, and marital status. No differences in hardiness composition were found between high stress/high illness and high stress/low illness groups. Only the Powerlessness scale of hardiness was related to illness. These results are discussed in comparison with other hardiness studies. Particular attention is focused on possible sex differences, and implications for future research are suggested. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and social resources in stress resistance.

Examined personality, social assets, and perceived social support as moderators of the effects of stressful life events on illness onset. In a group of 170 middle- and upper-level male executives (aged 32–65 yrs), personality hardiness (assessed by 3 scales of the Alienation Test, the Security scale of the California Life Goals Evaluation Schedule, and Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale) and stressful life events (an adaptation of the Schedule of Recent Events) consistently influenced illness scores, the former serving to lower symptomatology (Seriousness of Illness Survey), the latter to increase it. Perceived supervisor support had its predicted positive effect. Executives under high stress who perceived support from their supervisors had lower illness scores than those without support. Perceived family support, on the other hand, showed a negative effect on health when reported by those low in hardiness. Social assets made no significant impact on health status. Results underscore the value of differentiating between types of social resources and of monitoring the effects of 2 or more stress-resistance resources in a single study. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily Mood and Stress Predict Pain, Health Care Use, and Work Activity in African American Adults With Sickle-Cell Disease.

This study examined the extent to which daily mood and stress were associated with pain, health care use, and work activity in 41 adults (mean age=36 years) with sickle-cell disease. Multilevel model analyses of daily diaries (M=91 days) indicated that increases in stress and negative mood were associated with increases in same-day pain, health care use, and work absences. Lagged models suggested bidirectional relationships, with evidence that pain may be the more powerful initiating variable in pain-mood and pain-stress cycles. Of importance, positive mood was associated with lower same-day and subsequent day pain, as well as fewer health care contacts, suggesting that positive mood may serve to offset negative consequences of pain and other illness symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress factors and their effect on absenteeism in a corporate employee group

This research measured the effect of health evaluation interviews on illness absenteeism in a group of 500 corporate employees. The 20-minute interview, done in conjunction with the periodic medical examination, was designed to assess stress-related symptoms and coping abilities relate primarily to work stress. Referrals and educational materials were given to those employees who had stress-related symptoms. Illness absenteeism was monitored six months prior to and six months after the interview. Control groups of employees matched by sex, job classification and job stress score were compared with the experimental group who had the health evaluation interview. A significant drop in illness absenteeism for the experimental group as a result of the health evaluation interview and referral was observed.     

Hardiness and health: A critique and alternative approach.

Recent research has suggested that individual differences in the personality variable of hardiness are related to health and illness. Despite some success at predicting health outcomes, there are several theoretical and empirical problems that must be addressed before research on this topic can proceed. Most critical are (a) how hardiness is to be measured; (b) whether hardiness should be treated as a unitary phenomenon or as three separate phenomena associated with commitment, control, and challenge; and (c) whether hardiness has direct effects on health or indirect effects by virtue of buffering the impact of stressful life events. After reviewing the literature and presenting our own study of the psychometric properties of the Hardiness Scale and its subcomponents, we draw the following conclusions: (a) Hardiness is not a unitary phenomenon, but should be treated as involving three separate phenomena; (b) of the three subcomponents of hardiness, only commitment and control have adequate psychometric properties and are systematically related to health outcomes; (c) lack of control and lack of commitment have direct effects on health because they are psychologically stressful; and (d) if there are buffering effects of commitment and control, they are in addition to these direct effects and are situation specific. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effectiveness of hardiness training.

Recent research (e.g., S. C. Funk, 1992; S. R. Maddi, 1989) has suggested that hardiness protects wellness and stimulates effective functioning despite stressful circumstances. This study continued evaluation of the effectiveness of a hardiness training program. With 54 managers as participants, the hardiness training condition was compared with a relaxation/meditation condition and a placebo/social support control. The hardiness training condition was more effective than the other 2 conditions in increasing self-reported hardiness, job satisfaction, and social support while decreasing self-reported strain and illness severity. This pattern of results furthers the importance of hardiness training in stress management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stressful life events, personality, and health: An inquiry into hardiness.

Studied personality as a conditioner of the effects of stressful life events on illness onset. Two groups of middle- and upper-level 40–49 yr old executives had comparably high degrees of stressful life events in the previous 3 yrs, as measured by the Schedule of Recent Events. One group of 86 Ss suffered high stress without falling ill, whereas the other group of 75 Ss reported becoming sick after their encounter with stressful life events. Illness was measured by the Seriousness of Illness Survey (A. R. Wyler et al 1970). Discriminant function analysis, run on half of the Ss in each group and cross-validated on the remaining cases, supported the prediction that high stress/low illness executives show, by comparison with high stress/high illness executives, more hardiness, that is, have a stronger commitment to self, an attitude of vigorousness toward the environment, a sense of meaningfulness, and an internal locus of control. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Illness representations and matching labels with symptoms.

Conducted 3 studies with 251 undergraduates in which Ss were presented with health-relevant information (e.g., blood pressure [BP] or symptoms). Study 1 showed that informing Ss that their BP was elevated affected 2 attributes of illness representation: identity (label and symptoms), and time line or expected chronology of the health threat. In Study 2, Ss used environmental cues to interpret whether familiar, unfamiliar, and ambiguous symptoms were due to illness or to stress. Study 3 showed that the constructive process, initiated by a high-BP reading, is directed by prior beliefs about the time line for developing high BP and by the presence of external cues about the stressfulness of daily life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A behavioral medicine intervention in persons with HIV

This study used a pretest-posttest preexperimental design to examine the effect of a 10-week behavioral medicine support group intervention in a sample of persons with HIV. Using Solomon's psychoneuroimmunologic framework, the 10-week behavioral medicine program focused on the mind/body interaction, the relaxation response, coping with illness, hardiness, and nutrition. Pearson correlation coefficients and t tests were performed on the pre- and postintervention measures of hardiness, social support, immune function, and perceived health status. Results of the study indicated that hardiness (preintervention) and CD4 counts (pre- and postintervention) were significantly correlated with health status; however, CD4 counts decreased over the course of the behavioral medicine program. Implications for nursing and recommendations for further research are discussed.     

Basal expression, subcellular distribution, and up-regulation of the proto-oncogene c-JUN in the rat dentate gyrus after unilateral entorhinal cortex lesion

OBJECTIVE: To compare perceived current mental health and disablement between primary care and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, and to study social support and stress and severity of illness as possible determinants of mental health and disablement. METHOD: Observational cross-sectional analysis of 414 primary care patients in a rural community health center and 125 ESRD patients requiring hemodialysis in two community dialysis units. The Duke Health Profile (DUKE) anxiety-depression scale was used to assess mental health; the DUKE disability scale, to indicate disablement; the Duke Social Support and Stress Scale, to measure support and stress; and the Duke Severity of Illness Scale, to rate severity of illness. RESULTS: Perceived current mental health in terms of anxiety and depression symptoms was worse for primary care than for ESRD patients, and perceived current disablement was no different for the two groups. Patients' perception of their health status and of stress from family members were more closely associated with their level of anxiety and depression symptoms than were their diagnostic profiles or overall severity of illness. In turn, their level of anxiety and depression symptoms was the principal correlate of their disablement. CONCLUSIONS: The demonstration of strong relationships among anxiety and depression symptoms, disablement, and family stress in these two very different patient populations should stimulate further research and motivate clinicians to evaluate all three parameters as part of routine patient care.     

Stress exposure and stress generation in child and adolescent depression: A latent trait-state-error approach to longitudinal analyses.

In 2 longitudinal studies of negative life events and depressive symptoms in adolescents (N = 708) and in children (N = 508), latent trait-state-error structural equation models tested both the stress generation hypothesis and the stress exposure hypothesis. Results strongly suggested that self-reports of depressive symptoms reflect the influence of a perfectly stable trait factor as well as a less stable state factor. Support emerged for both the stress generation model and the stress exposure model. When the state depression factor was modeled as predicting stress, support for the stress generation model appeared to increase with age. When the trait depression factor was modeled as the predictor of stress, support for the stress generation model did not vary with the child's age. In both models, support for the stress exposure remained relatively constant across age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hardiness protects against war-related stress in Army Reserve forces.

As active-duty forces continue to shrink in the post-Cold War military, reserve and National Guard units play an increasingly important role in deployments of all types. When mobilized for deployment, reservists may experience a range of major life stressors in addition to the stressors encountered in the area of military operations. Although previous studies show ill effects of stress on some of these personnel, few studies have sought to explain the continued good health and stress resiliency displayed by the majority of veterans. This study examined personality hardiness as a potential protective variable among army reserve personnel mobilized for the Persian Gulf War. Regression results showed hardiness interacted with both combat-related stress and stressful life events to predict psychiatric symptoms on several measures. The pattern of results suggested hardiness protects against the ill effects of stress, particularly under high- and multiple-stress conditions. These results have implications for preventing the ill effects of stress across a variety of occupations that can expose workers to multiple stressors, including job disruption and family separation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hardiness and health: A prospective study.

Hypothesized that hardiness—commitment, control, and challenge—functions to decrease the effect of stressful life events to producing illness symptoms. 259 upper- and middle-level male managers (mean age 48 yrs) were administered a battery of tests (including Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale, the Schedule of Life Events, and the Seriousness of Illness Survey) covering a 5-yr period. Results support the hypothesis by showing main effects on illness for both stressful life events and hardiness and an interaction effect for these independent variables. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preventive resources and emotion regulation expectancies as mediators between attachment and college students' stress outcomes.

In this study the authors examined both preventive psychological coping resources and negative mood regulation expectancies as potential mediators between parental attachment and two types of stress outcomes: stress symptoms and stress-produced emotions. Data were collected from 390 college students and separate structural equation models were tested for the outcomes of stress symptoms and emotions. Results suggested that for both models, as hypothesized, preventive resources and negative mood regulation expectancies functioned as mediators. Further, there was evidence that these results were similar for the model in which stress symptoms were used as an outcome, as well as the model in which stress-produced emotions were used as the outcome. Implications for a more complete understanding of psychological resources promoted by secure attachment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cost of lower self-esteem: Testing a self- and social-bonds model of health.

The authors draw upon social, personality, and health psychology to propose and test a self-and-social-bonds model of health. The model contends that lower self-esteem predicts health problems and that poor-quality social bonds explain this association. In Study 1, lower self-esteem prospectively predicted reports of health problems 2 months later, and this association was explained by subjective reports of poor social bonds. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 but used a longitudinal design with 6 waves of data collection, assessed self-reports of concrete health-related behaviors (i.e., number of visits to the doctor and classes missed due to illness), and measured both subjective and objective indicators of quality of social bonds (i.e., interpersonal stress and number of friends). In addition, Study 2 showed that poor-quality social bonds predicted acute drops in self-esteem over time, which in turn predicted acute decreases in quality of social bonds and, consequently, acute increases in health problems. In both studies, alternative explanations to the model were tested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hardiness and social support as moderators of the effects of life stress.

Examined the relation of social support and the hardy personality, which have been identified in previous studies as variables that reduce the effects of life stress on physical or psychological disturbance, and the relative importance of each in reducing the effects of life stress. 83 female undergraduates completed the Life Experiences Survey, the Levenson Locus of Control Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and self-report measures of social support and hardiness. The commitment and challenge dimensions of hardiness were found to be significantly correlated with social support, whereas the control dimension was not. When the interactions among life stress, social support, and hardiness were considered, only alienation from self moderated the effects of life stress. The possibility is proposed that studies that found social support to be a moderator of life stress may have indirectly measured hardiness. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroepithelial progenitor cells explanted from human fetal brain proliferate and differentiate in vitro

Analyses tested the following contrasting hypotheses: a) The occurrence of a new symptom in the presence of ongoing life stress increases the attribution of symptoms to illness and increases the use of health care; b) new symptoms occurring in the presence of ongoing life stress are attributed to stressors if they are ambiguous indicators of illness, and they are unlikely to motivate care-seeking if the stressor, i.e., the perceived cause, is of recent onset. The 43-to-92-year old subjects in this longitudinal study were less likely to seek care for the ambiguous symptoms they experienced during the previous week if there was a concurrent life stressor that began during the previous 3 weeks; these symptoms were attributed to stress rather than to illness, and subjects tolerated the emotional distress caused by the combination of a stressor and an ambiguous symptom. Subjects were less willing to tolerate the combined distress of an ambiguous symptom and a concurrent life stressor if the stressor onset was not recent; under such conditions, subjects were more likely to seek health care. Current life stressors did not affect care-seeking for symptoms that were clear signs of disease; these symptoms were readily identified as health threats in need of medical attention. The findings contribute to a better theoretical understanding of how individuals perceive their physical states and how they cope with stress. Practical implications of these findings for increasing efficient use of health care services are also discussed.     

The pharmacokinetics and physiological effects of buprenorphine infusion in premature neonates

Whereas some people appear to cope after learning that they have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, others experience depression and suicidal ideation. In this study, 142 persons with HIV infection were administered the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). High levels of depression were predicted by lower perceived social support, attributions that health was influenced more by chance, high-risk sexual behavior practices, and greater number of HIV illness symptoms and greater duration of time knowing of one's own positive serostatus. Ongoing high-risk sexual behavior practices were predicted by higher levels of recreational drug use and of depression. These findings highlight the need for improved mental health services for persons with HIV conditions.     

The personality construct of hardiness: I. Effects on experiencing, coping, and strain.

Through research and practice over the past 20 years, hardiness has emerged as a personality disposition that enhances performance, conduct, morale, stamina, and health. This article furthers the construct validity of hardiness theorizing and assessment by determining the role of hardiness in moment-to-moment experiencing, coping, and strain reactions. Using the experiential sampling technique, the 1st study showed that the higher the hardiness level as measured by the Personal Views Survey II, the greater the tendency, with regard to one's activities, to enjoy them (commitment), feel that you have chosen them (control), and sense that you are learning through them (challenge). The 2nd study showed that the tendency for work stressors to elicit more transformational (hardy) coping is intensified by hardiness level. Further this study found that regressive (avoidance) coping is unrelated to event context but negatively related to hardiness. The 3rd study provided evidence that hardiness is negatively related to both self-report (checklist) and objective (blood pressure) measures of organismic strain. Taken together, the 3 studies provide further support for hardiness theorizing and measurement and contribute to the gathering evidence of its importance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)