Lifetime Traumas and Mental Health: The Significance of Cumulative Adversity

ADHD-like behavior and entrepreneurial intentions

“…While adversity is often negatively related to well-being (Breslau et al 1999;Turner and Lloyd 1995), recent evidence suggests that adversity may also foster resilience, i.e., individuals who experience moderate adversity may be better able to cope with stressful situations or failure and, therefore, report higher well-being (Seery et al 2010;Seery, et al 2013). By experiencing the negative consequences of ADHD from early childhood, those individuals may develop a higher resistance to failure as well as ways to cope with adversity and achieve success against significant odds (Wilmshurst et al 2011).…”

Gender differences in health: a Canadian study of the psychosocial, structural and behavioural determinants of health

“…First, numerous research studies show that people exposed to stressful life events are at greater risk of psychological distress and psychiatric disorders (Kessler, Price & Wortman, 1985), poor physical health (Jemmot & Locke, 1984) and substance abuse (Turner & Lloyd, 1995). Second, while much of the research on the impact of stress on health has focussed on exposure to life events, others point to the role of chronic stressors (i.e., the ongoing and difficult conditions of daily life) (McDonough & Walters, 2001;McDonough, Walters, & Strohschein, 2002;Pearlin, 1989;Wheaton, 1994).…”

“…For example, the prevalence of most health-risk behaviours is higher among those within lower social classes (Blaxter, 1990;Denton & Walters, 1999;Lantz et al, 2001). Further, the experiences of stressful life events and chronic stressors in everyday life are also socially patterned by socio-economic status, as well as by age, social support, marital status, and the presence of children in the home (Pearlin, 1989;Turner & Lloyd, 1995;Zuzanek & Mannell, 1998). The literature on social support, for instance, has clearly demonstrated a direct association with better mental and physical health; yet, social support also works indirectly by buffering the health-damaging effects of negative life events and chronic strains (Blaxter, 1990;House, Landis & Umberson, 1994;Kessler & McLeod, 1985).…”

Inventorying stressful life events as risk factors for psychopathology: Toward resolution of the problem of intracategory variability.

“…For example, a search of the terms life events, life change, stressful life events, and life stress (or a combination of these terms) using PsycINFO (http://www.apa.org/psycinfo) shows an increasing rate of publications on these topics, from 292 in the decade of 1967 to 1976, to 2,126 in 1977 to 1986, to 4,269 in 1987 to Breslau, 2002;Brown & Harris, 1989;Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974;Grant, Compas, Thurm, McMahon, & Gipson, 2004;Gunderson & Rahe, 1974;Paykel, 1974;Rahe & Arthur, 1978 Tor, 1998). The common characteristic of these traditional checklists for research, whether focusing on usual situations or extreme situations, is that they consist of rather broad categories of events (e.g., divorce) rather than detailed descriptions of individual events (e.g., a divorce after a period of marital conflict over the infidelity of one's spouse).Although the emphasis has usually been on recent events in relatively brief intervals of time, such as 6 months to 1 year, a few studies have attempted to assess "traumatic" events (usually life-threatening or otherwise threatening to physical integrity), other major events (e.g., spousal bereavement), or both over the life course of the respondents (Breslau, Davis, Andreski, & Peterson, 1991;Breslau, Davis, Peterson, & Schultz, 1997;Breslau et al, 1998;Davidson, Hughes, Blazer, & George, 1991;Kessler, Davis, & Kendler, 1997;Kessler, Sonnega, Bromet, & Nelson, 1995;Norris, 1992;Resnick, Kilpatrick, Dansky, Saunders, & Best, 1993;Turner & Lloyd, 1995. These attempts at lifetime coverage of major events are consistent with Meyer's conception of a life chart of fundamentally important environmental incidents and have the potential of providing more comprehensive information about (a) whether the events recur or persist over time to the extent of becoming ongoing difficulties (Brown & Harris, 1978) or chronic stressors (e.g., Lepore, 1997); (b) the role of the events singly and in relation to earlier stressful events in both onset and course of disorder; and (c) reciprocal relations between the occurrence of some types of events that are not completely independent of the behavior of the individual and the occurrence or recurrence of episodes of disorder (Grant et al, 2003(Grant et al, , 2004Hammen, 2005;…”