Everyday stressors and gender differences in daily distress

“The most commonly reported daily stressors are interpersonal tensions (Almeida 2005), and interpersonal stressors can lead to high levels of emotional distress (Almeida & Kessler 1998, Rook 1984).”

“Numerous examples of daily diary studies of couples are available (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; DeLongis, Capreol, Holtzman, O’Brien, & Campbell, 2004; Shrout, Herman, & Bolger, 2006).”

“Yet relatively few studies (e.g., Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler, & Schilling, 1989) have evaluated the differential impact of stressor content on mood and symptoms.”

“Women are more exposed to stress than men,(38) but some evidence suggests that men may have higher levels of employmentrelated stress.(57,58) Moreover, women may employ more effective coping strategies, especially for interpersonal stress.”

“Indeed, researchers have found that women tend to report a greater number of interpersonal problems and report more distress in response to problems than do men (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Birditt & Fingerman, 2003).”

“Other research has reported gender differences in stressful experiences, with women generally experiencing greater daily stress (Almeida and Kessler, 1998) and greater occupational stress (Michael et al.”

“Diary methods have been utilized previously in investigations of supportive and stressful experiences in close relationships (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Laurenceau, Barrett, & Pietromonaco, 1998).”

“Men react more anxiously to work and/or financial matters [47].”

“…age and gender differences, including the number of personal problems reported (Okun & Keith, 1998; Rook, 1984), the degree of stress incurred (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998; Thomas, 1995), and the behaviors used to handle conflicts (Blanchard-Fields, Jahnke, & Camp, 1995;…”

“Highly successful in the stress and coping literature, the daily diary method has been used to determine how individual differences in, for instance, personality or demographic traits predict daily variation in stress reactivity (e.g., Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995; Almeida & Kessler, 1998).”

“Research has shown that marital distress is a risk factor for anxiety and mood disorders for both men and women (Wishman & Bruce, 1999 ; Wishman et al. 2006), but that women are more likely to experience marital distress ( Almeida & Kessler, 1998 ; Schumm et al. 1998).”

“Women have also been shown to become more distressed over home/family demands, while men become distressed over work matters (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Conger, Lorenz, Elder, Simons, & Ge, 1993).”

“Because men and women tend to differ in their average mood (Almeida & Kessler, 1998) and physical symptom reports (Verbrugge, 1985), we controlled for gender in all analyses.”

“Diary records about family events are a promising way to study the impact of everyday stressful experiences on family functioning (e.g., Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Repetti & Wood, 1997).”

“Indeed, several past studies have found evidence for general patterns of gender differences in reports of mental health (e.g., Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Davis, Matthews, & Twamley, 1999; Kessler, 2000).”

“These items are generally included in symptom checklists (Almeida & Kessler, 1998;Kessler, Mickelson, & Williams, 1999) and assess the extent to which respondents felt J Marriage Fam.”

“For instance, strategies for coping with stress vary across individuals and depend on numerous factors such as personality, gender, and social norms (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Folkman, 1992).”

“Specifically, the sources of stressors associated with depression may be different for men and women (Almeida & Kessler, 1998), and women may suffer higher rates of depression because they are more vulnerable to interpersonal stressors than men (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2001).”

“Our finding of substantial heterogeneity in the prevalence and distribution of daily stressors during midlife and older age is consistent with previous research showing that exposure to daily stressors is less frequent among males (Almeida and Kessler, 1998), older adults (Zautra et al.”

“Alternatively, relationships and the quality of relationships may be more central to the lives of women compared to men (Almeida & Kessler, 1998).”

“recent study by Almeida and Kessler (1998) found that gender differences in psychological distress were largely due to women experiencing more daily stressors and hence more onsets of distress than men.”

“arguments) are associated with increased psychological distress, especially in women ( Almeida & Kessler, 1998 ).”

“Furthermore, past work on stress at work revealed gender differences in coping with stressors (eg, Almeida & Kessler, 1998 ; Matud, 2004 ; Ptacek, Smith, & Dodge, 1994 ).”

“…gendered responsivity, showing that stressful conditions (variously defined) are more strongly associated with psychological distress among women (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Aneshensel et al., 1991; Avison & Turner, 1988; Horwitz & Davies, 1994; Horwitz et al., 1996; Kessler & McLeod, 1984; Simon…”

“Many empirical studies suggest that women are on average more stressed than men by significant events, such as births and deaths occurring in their own lives or their close social network; this is especially true of interpersonal events (Almeida and Kessler, 1998; Matud, 2004; Rudolph and Hammen, 1999).”

“Almeida and Kessler (1998), who reported similar findings from a daily process study of married couples, found gender disparities in daily mood to diminish once daily stressors were considered.”

“Women tend to become more emotionally upset than men during disagreements ( Almeida & Kessler , 1998 ) and are more sensitive to threats associated with the disruption of relationship harmony , whereas men tend to be more sensitive to threats associated with loss of dominance , power , and control…”

“To explain why stressful factors have a greater impact on women, Almeida and Kessler [36] suggest that women tend to ruminate negative thoughts more, prolonging distress, increasing the effects of stressors on mood, interfering with behaviors, and impeding the development of a strategies to eliminate stressors.”

“Females may also feel responsible for protecting the family from distress and may believe that their own stress responses may prevent them from taking care of family members (Almeida & Kessler, 1998).”

“Women tend to report more negative interactions and poorer well-being than men (Almeida & Kessler, 1998).”

“Not only have family and home demands been found predictive of daily distress (Almeida and Kessler 1998), consequences of familyto-work conXict also have been found detrimental for employees’ mental and physical health (Grzywacz and Bass 2003; Torkelson and Muhonen 2003).”

“The Daily Inventory of Stressful Events interview utilizes investigator-rated measures of stressor severity, which provides a way to reduce the bias inherent in self-ratings of stressor severity and appraisal (31); an extensive electronic dictionary specifies codable events.”

“Interpersonal attachments expose individuals to stress experienced by others in their network through the processes of contagion [44–46], in which interconnected individuals indirectly transfer their stress or successful adaptation to stress to another person [47].”

“This is important since women has been found to report higher prevalence of high distress days and a lower prevalence of distress-free days (Almeida & Kessler, 1998), recover suboptimally after work (Frankenhaeuser et al., 1989; Lundberg & Frankenhaeuser, 1999), and report higher levels of burnout…”

“Although the literature examining the relation between gender and stress reveals several conflicting outcomes, numerous authors have determined that women find themselves in stressful circumstances more often than men (Almeida and Kessler, 1998; McDonough and Walters, 2001).”

“Finally, to determine incremental predictive validity of self-control on daily stress processes, we included gender and neuroticism as covariates, given their known associations with exposure and reactivity to stress (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995).”

“For example, Almeida and Kessler's (1998 ) study of gender differences in daily distress required an approach that would allow participants to comment on events soon after their occurrence.”

“Unfortunately, dental schools are considered highly stressful learning environments and stress levels among dental students have been revealed to be higher than stress levels in general population (3-8).”

“…from the strains associated with being in a couple (problems relating to commitment, affection, etc.) and living with children (behavioural problems, illnesses, etc.) that distress emerges (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Ballard et al., 2006; Marchand et al., 2005a, 2005c; Voydanoff & Donnelly, 1999b).”

“Research suggests that females tend to experience greater psychological distress as compared to males in the context of interpersonally stressful events (e.g., Almeida & Kessler, 1998).”

“Though slightly dated, one study of married heterosexual American couples found that wives reported more everyday stressors than husbands, especially in terms of household stressors, family demands, demands from others, and arguments with children (148).”

“This method has been successful in the stress literature in determining how individual differences in various domains predict daily stress reactivity (e.g., Almeida and Kessler, 1998).”

“Previous research using this approach has confirmed gender differences in the perception of daily stress ( Almeida and Kessler 1998 ), and some evidence has been found for the capacity of current depression to influence stress reactivity (Peeters et al. 2003).”

“Participants were asked how often in the last 24 hr they felt each emotion using a 0 (none of the time) to 4 (all of the time) scale (Almeida & Kessler, 1998).”

“The transcribed interview responses were rated in a consensus meeting using the DISE’s extensive electronic “dictionary” which specifies codable events (47).”

“In terms of theory, some researchers have proposed that women are more responsive to marital conflict than men (e.g., Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Bolger, Belongis, Kessler, & Wethington, 1989; Gaelick, Bodenhausen, & Wyer, 1985).”

“Differences between males’ and females’ experience of stress due to hassles may be caused by several factors, including differences in coping strategies (Stone & Neale, 1984), emotional reactions to stressors ( Almeida & Kessler, 1998 ), perceived control over stressors (Nolen-Hoeksema, Larson, & Grayson, 1999) and ru…”

“Past studies (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Stawski, et al., 2008) have also demonstrated that daily stressors have powerful influence on well-being, by having separate and immediate effects that are confined to a single day, and by piling up over several days to create lasting frustrations and…”

“Women notice themselves in stressful situations more frequently than men (e.g., Almeida & Kessler, 1998; McDonough & Walters, 2001).”

“The results supported and confirmed previous research findings (Almeida & Kessler, 1998; Astbury, 2006; Gove & Tudor, 1973; McDonough & Walters, 2001; McDonough & Strohschein, 2003; Mirowsky & Ross, 1995; Mirowsky & Ross, 1989).”

“Exposure to these kinds of everyday, commonplace events, or “quotidian” stressors [38], are strong predictors of psychological well being [36, 39–48].”