New research has found that individuals of poorer mental and physical health tend to appraise the same stressful events as more threatening compared to those in better health. The association remained even after controlling for age and gender. The paper was published in Stress and Health.
Stress is a universal human experience. Individuals are regularly exposed to sources of stress (stressors) ranging from everyday hassles (e.g. being late) to major life events (e.g., death of a loved one). However, individual reactions to these events vary widely due to differences in personality, genetics, past experiences, and coping mechanisms.
When going through a stressful event, some individuals may experience heightened anxiety and physical symptoms, such as increased heart rate and tension, while others may remain relatively calm and composed. Cognitive appraisals, or how one perceives and interprets the stressor, play a significant role in shaping the stress response.
For example, individuals with a more optimistic outlook may view challenges as opportunities for growth, whereas those with a pessimistic attitude may perceive them as insurmountable threats. Coping strategies, such as problem-solving, seeking social support, or engaging in relaxation techniques, can also influence how individuals manage stress.
Study author Ella McLoughlin and her colleagues wanted to explore whether the perception of how threatening a stressful event is depends on an individual’s physical and mental health and wellbeing. Their expectation was that individuals of poorer mental health, physical health, and with lower well-being will tend to view the same stressful events as more threatening.
Study participants were 395 individuals, mostly of European origin, recruited through social media, posters, and researchers’ personal contacts. Their average age was 23 years. 251 of them were female.
Participants completed the Appraisal of Challenge and Threat Scale, a tool used to measure how people perceive and interpret stressful situations. It assesses whether individuals view a stressor as a challenge, which means they feel confident and see an opportunity for growth, or as a threat, which means they feel overwhelmed and focus on the potential for loss or harm. They also completed assessments of depression (the Patient Health Questionnaire), anxiety (the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale), psychological well-being (the World Health Organization’s Well-being Index), and physical health complaints over the past month (the PHQ).
Results showed that challenge and threat appraisal were associated with both mental health indicators, well-being and physical health. In other words, individuals with more pronounced symptoms of depression and anxiety i.e., in poorer mental health tended to view stressful events more as a threat than as a challenge (as more threatening). Individuals with lower well-being and poorer physical health also tended to view stressful events as more threatening.
“The results offer some of the first empirical evidence that a tendency to appraise potentially stressful situations as more of a threat (i.e., situational demands exceed personal coping resources) may be associated with poorer mental health (e.g., greater symptoms of depression), psychological well‐being (e.g., lower vitality), and physical health (e.g., more respiratory illnesses),” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the links between individual health and appraisal of one’ ability to deal with stressors. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn from the data. Additionally, the study used self-report measures that could be biased by social desirability, both when evaluating health and when evaluating one’s ability to deal with stressors.
The paper, “The tendency to appraise stressful situations as more of a threat is associated with poorer health and well‐being,” was authored by Ella McLoughlin, Rachel Arnold, and Lee J. Moore.