More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science

Epel, Elissa S.; Crosswell, Alexandra D.; Mayer, Simone; Prather, Aric A.; Slavich, George M.; Puterman, Eli; Mendes, Wendy Berry

doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.03.001

Cited by 572 publications

(623 citation statements)

References 270 publications

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“…In other words, although EMA can limit bias, it still relies on self-report of human interpretation and introspection to collect data. Yet less focus has been paid on considering how EMA measures of stress can be potentially biased (e.g., Epel et al, 2018). Taken together, results of these previous studies suggest the importance of systematically examining methodological factors, including the dimension of stress assessed and temporal features, to determine whether they impact when people report the experience of stress.…”

Section: Ecologically Valid Assessment Of Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, emerging work in this area increasingly suggests that our understanding of what stress is, and how to measure stress, may be limited (Epel et al, 2018; Smyth et al, 2018). A recent review calls for a unified model of stress to better harmonize findings across studies and to consider how stress affects health across the lifespan (Epel et al, 2018). Implicit in this domain of work is the idea that different methods used to measure stress could produce different findings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding stress reports in daily life: a coordinated analysis of factors associated with the frequency of reporting stress

et al. 2019

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Although stress is a common experience in everyday life, a clear understanding of how often an individual experiences and reports stress is lacking. Notably, there is little information regarding factors that may influence how frequently stress is reported, including which stress dimension is measured (i.e., stressors—did an event happen, subjective stress—how stressed do you feel, conditional stress—how stressful a stressor was) and the temporal features of that assessment (i.e., time of day, day of study, weekday vs. weekend day). The purpose of the present study was to conduct a coordinated analysis of five independent ecological momentary assessment studies utilizing varied stress reporting dimensions and temporal features. Results indicated that, within days, stress was reported at different frequencies depending on the stress dimension. Stressors were reported on 15–32% of momentary reports made within a day; across days, the frequency ranged from 42 to 76% of days. Depending on the cutoff, subjective stress was reported more frequently ranging about 8–56% of all moments within days, and 40–90% of days. Likewise, conditional stress ranged from just 3% of moments to 22%, and 11–69% of days. For the temporal features, stress was reported more frequently on weekdays (compared to weekend days) and on days earlier in the study (relative to days later in the study); time of day was inconsistently related to stress reports. In sum, stress report frequency depends in part on how stress is assessed. As such, researchers may wish to measure stress in multiple ways and, in the case of subjective and conditional stress with multiple operational definitions, to thoroughly characterize the frequency of stress reporting.

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Section: Ecologically Valid Assessment Of Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding stress reports in daily life: a coordinated analysis of factors associated with the frequency of reporting stress

et al. 2019

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“…Major life stressors come in many different forms and often have a significant impact on human health (Epel et al, ; Shields et al, ; Shields & Slavich, ). These stressors are relatively uncommon, objectively occurring life events and difficulties that cause substantial cognitive upheaval (Slavich, ), and they thus differ from daily hassles or perceived stress, which refer to stress related to common day‐to‐day occurrences or subjective perceptions of stress, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greater lifetime stress exposure predicts blunted cortisol but heightened DHEA responses to acute stress

et al. 2018

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Although prior research has examined how early adversity and chronic stress exposure relate to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses to acute stress, to date, no studies have examined how stressors occurring over the entire lifespan predict such responses. To address this issue, we recruited 61 healthy young adults and measured their exposure to 55 different types of acute life events and chronic difficulties occurring over the lifespan. In addition, we characterized differences in participants' HPA axis responses to acute stress by measuring their salivary cortisol and DHEA responses to the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups. Greater cumulative stress exposure was associated with a blunted cortisol response, but a heightened DHEA response, to the acute stressor. Moreover, it was participants' exposure to these stressors (i.e., lifetime count), not their perceived severity, which predicted their cortisol and DHEA responses to acute stress. Furthermore, differential effects were observed by stress exposure domain. Notably, only adulthood and marital/partner stressors significantly predicted cortisol responses to acute stress, whereas stress was more uniformly associated with DHEA responses to the acute stressor. These results thus reveal how cumulative stress exposure is associated with HPA axis responsivity to acute stress, while highlighting the fact that different stressors may have substantially different associations with these biological outcomes.

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“…Timing, in turn, refers to exactly when a stressor occurred during a person’s life, frequency refers to how often it occurred, and severity refers to the degree of cognitive upheaval or psychological/contextual threat the stressor caused. Ultimately, each of these dimensions has the potential to greatly modulate a stressor’s impact (Epel et al, 2018). …”

Section: Definitional and Conceptual Issues In Life Stress Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stressnology: The primitive (and problematic) study of life stress exposure and pressing need for better measurement

Slavich

2019

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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Life stress is central to many contemporary theories of human health and behavior. Despite this fact, numerous conceptual and measurement issues remain unresolved. The present article explores these topics by first summarizing several key definitional and conceptual matters that are important for life stress research. Second, I introduce stressnology, defined herein as the fictitiously named, but otherwise very real and problematic approach to studying life stress exposure that involves measuring only the superficial contours of this very complex construct. Finally, I review some recent methodological advancements that have the potential to move us past primitive approaches to conceptualizing and assessing life stress. Ultimately, although the influence that life stress has on human health and behavior is profound, our understanding of this construct-and how it affects wellbeing, functioning, and development-is still very limited. Using state-of-the-art instruments for assessing life stress exposure, especially across the entire life course, should therefore be a top scientific and clinical priority.

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More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science

Cited by 572 publications

References 270 publications

Understanding stress reports in daily life: a coordinated analysis of factors associated with the frequency of reporting stress

Understanding stress reports in daily life: a coordinated analysis of factors associated with the frequency of reporting stress

Greater lifetime stress exposure predicts blunted cortisol but heightened DHEA responses to acute stress

Stressnology: The primitive (and problematic) study of life stress exposure and pressing need for better measurement

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