Cited by 300Stress Responses and CortisolHealth, psychology, and well-beingHealth and Well-being Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year; 80 of the 82 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 61 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Life Stress and Health: A Review of Conceptual Issues and Recent Findings

Open access
Slavich, George M.·2016·Teaching of Psychology

Abstract

Life stress is a central construct in many models of human health and disease. The present article reviews research on stress and health, with a focus on (a) how life stress has been conceptualized and measured over time, (b) recent evidence linking stress and disease, and (c) mechanisms that might underlie these effects. Emerging from this body of work is evidence that stress is involved in the development, maintenance, or exacerbation of several mental and physical health conditions, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety disorders, depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS, stroke, and certain types of cancer. Stress has also been implicated in accelerated biological aging and premature mortality. These effects have been studied most commonly using self-report checklist measures of life stress exposure, although interview-based approaches provide a more comprehensive assessment of individuals’ exposure to stress. Most recently, online systems like the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) have been developed for assessing lifetime stress exposure, and such systems may provide important new information to help advance our understanding of how stressors occurring over the life course get embedded in the brain and body to affect lifespan health.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Life stress is a central risk factor for many mental and physical health conditions, but its conceptualization and measurement have varied widely. This review summarizes historical and contemporary approaches, evidence linking stress to disease, proposed biological mechanisms, and the emerging use of lifetime stress assessment tools such as the STRAIN.

Key findings

  • Stress exposure is implicated in the development, maintenance, or exacerbation of asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety disorders, depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, stroke, certain cancers, accelerated biological aging, and premature mortality.
  • Self-report checklists are common but face reliability and validity concerns; interview-based systems such as the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule and UCLA Life Stress Interview provide more comprehensive stressor assessment.
  • The Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) assesses 96 types of acute life events and chronic difficulties and can produce 115 stress exposure scores and life charts.
  • Proposed mechanisms include stress-related upregulation of inflammation, overlap between social and physical pain systems, and social stress effects on gene expression; one study found more than 200 genes differentially expressed in lonely versus nonlonely individuals.

Methods

  • Narrative review of conceptual issues, measurement approaches, recent findings on stress and health, and biological mechanisms.
  • The paper also describes two classroom studies using transformational teaching: students completed the STRAIN online, then were randomly assigned to a stress lecture or control conditions; the main finding was significantly improved understanding of how stress affects health.
  • No systematic search strategy, inclusion criteria, or meta-analytic method is reported.

Limitations

  • The paper states that self-report checklist measures have concerns about recall accuracy, objective reporting, item interpretation, and conflation of stress with outcomes.
  • The paper states that there is little agreement on which stressor features are most important to measure and that more research is needed on lifetime stress exposure and its biological mechanisms.
  • Evident from the text: this is a narrative review without a systematic search protocol, and the two teaching studies are described only briefly without full methodological or statistical detail.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/0098628316662768

Cites

80 of 80 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

30 Not checked yet · 16 Own interpretation · 2 Own method · 1 Own result · 1 No basis given

Verify all 61 references — free account

Show all 29 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 15
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 10
21 of 21
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The human genome continually shifts its activity to coordinate biological processes and calibrate the body to the surrounding social, physical, and microbial environment.

    “In reality, though, the human genome is continually shifting its activity to coordinate biological processes that are needed to sustain life and to calibrate the body to deal with the surrounding social, physical, and microbial environment.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Not everyone who experiences life stress becomes ill.

    “Although life stress is a strong risk factor for disease, not everyone who experiences stress gets sick.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Memories of important events can change over time and be influenced by mood.

    “Because memories of important events can change over time and can be influenced by mood, a second concern involves whether individuals can self-report on the nature or severity of past stressors in an objective, unbiased manner.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Self-report checklist measures typically describe stressors in relatively general terms.

    “Because self-report checklist measures typically describe stressors in relatively general terms, a third concern involves whether researchers actually know what has happened to a respondent given his or her endorsement of a particular item on a checklist.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Some checklist measures enquire about sleep problems, anxiety symptoms, and other affective and behavioral outcomes.

    “For example, some checklist measures enquire about sleep problems, anxiety symptoms, and other affective and behavioral outcomes, and this can conflate the measurement of stress with the dependent variables being examined.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    A majority of individuals who experience major life stressors do not become ill.

    “These statistics may sound alarming, but the silver lining is that a majority of individuals who experience major life stressors do not get ill.”
6 of 6

Claims other papers make about this one

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Citations

Cites

Show all 82 references

Research works printed but not linked: 9

  1. Allbutt C., 1895, Contemporary Review, 67, 210
  2. Clark D. A., 1999, Scientific foundations of cognitive theory of depression
  3. Lamkin D. M., 2016, The SAGE encyclopedia of theory in psychology, first edition, 768
  4. Monroe S. M., 2014, Handbook of depression, third edition, 296
  5. Selye H., 1976, The stress of life
  6. Slavich G. M. (2005). Transformational teaching. In Zinn T. E., Saville B. K., Williams J. L. (Eds.), Essays from e-xcellence in teaching, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.teachpsych.org/Resources/Documents/ebooks/eit2005.pdf
  7. Slavich G. M., 2006, The teaching of psychology in autobiography: Perspectives from exemplary psychology teachers, 92
  8. Slavich G. M., 2016, The SAGE encyclopedia of theory in psychology, first edition, 762
  9. Weiss J. M., 1985, Stress and coping, 93

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Metadata

Authors
Slavich, G. M.
Affiliations
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Corresponding author
Slavich, George M.
Venue
Teaching of Psychology
Published
2016-08-20
Volume
43
Issue
4
Pages
346-355
ISSN
  • 0098-6283 (ISSN-L)
  • 1532-8023
OpenAlex
W2509142306
Cited by
300
References
82
Citations by year
2026: 25 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 2
FWCI
10.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Teaching of Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (K08MH103443)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, psychology, and well-being
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Health and Well-being Studies
Keywords
life events, stress and health, stress and disease, mental health, physical health, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety disorders, depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, stroke, cancer, biological aging, premature mortality, life course, stress mechanisms

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