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

Abstract

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.

Resilience Under Military Operational Stress: Can Leaders Influence Hardiness?

“…Studies with a variety of occupational groups have found that hardiness operates as a significant moderator or buffer of stress (e.g., Bartone, 1989;Contrada, 1989;Kobasa, Maddi, & Kahn, 1982;Roth, Wiebe, Fillingim, & Shay, 1989;Wiebe, 1991). Hardiness has also been identified as a moderator of combat exposure stress in Gulf War soldiers (Bartone, 1993(Bartone, , 1999a(Bartone, , 2000.…”

What Predicts Adjustment Among College Students? A Longitudinal Panel Study

“…Stressful life experiences have been shown to directly correlate with increased illness 8 , and recent research has shown a dramatic increase in the levels of stress experienced by college students over the past thirty years 9 . In response to these increasing levels of stress, students often engage in negative health behaviors (e.g., drinking, smoking).…”

Hardiness and Culture: A Study with Reference to the 3 Cs of Kobasa

“…Research studies with a variety of occupational groups have found that hardiness functions as a significant moderator or buffer in the stress-health relation (Kobasa, Maddi & Puccetti 1982;Roth, 1989;Collins, 1991;J. L. Blgbee, 1992;Williams et al, 1992;Bartone, 1998).…”