Happily ever after

Dave Almeida, a family and consumer resources professor, directed the first study in the nation in which participants' day-to-day stress was fully described and examined.

For eight consecutive nights, 1,500 participants, ages 25 to 74, were asked to report their daily stress as part of the National Study of Daily Experiences.

"If you ask people to assess their mood over the course of a month, older people are happier than younger people," Almeida said.

While people of all ages complain of daily stress, younger people weigh their bad days more heavily over the course of a week, he said.

"I do think younger adults are more distressed than older adults," Almeida said. "It's the wisdom of growing older - they're able to put things in perspective."

Young adulthood involves great transitions that trigger anxiety, he said.

Almeida's study also found that gender plays into people's reaction to daily activities and occurrences.

Women experience "network stressors" - taking on the problems of friends and family - three times more frequently than men.

"When bad things happen to other people, women are reactive," Almeida said. "They get sick - they get headaches."

Women participants consistently hit a stress peak between 35 and 45 years of age.

"I think perhaps for women this is a time of transition as well," Almeida said.

In their mid-lives, women often re-enter the work force and care for older children and aging parents, he said.

Almeida theorizes that people's reactions to stress are largely dependent upon social and economic status. Most stress originates from job troubles, which can be exacerbated by a lack of education, he said.

"People who don't have any control over their work - that's the worst," Almeida said.

Coping with stress is usually the focus of stress management research, but more than a change of attitude is needed to alleviate pressure, he said.

"The type of stressors you have isn't just random," he said. "Your level of social capital will help you out. Being poor in and of itself is a stressor."

Regardless of economic circumstances, Almeida found "it's the little things that will get you."

"On days that you experience these small stressors, you are 50 percent more likely to have physical health symptoms" like head pain, stomach-aches and muscle tension, Almeida said.

UA family studies graduate students Dan McDonald, Melanie Horn and Amy Chandler have assisted Almeida by creating a dictionary of about 5,000 stressful events experienced by study participants. The events are grouped into 54 categories such as "arguments about household events" and "pet-related problems."

The group can correlate participants' complaints of physical problems with certain stress sources, McDonald said.

Almeida will use data gathered by testing 250 pairs of twins to discover why people respond differently to stress. Almeida looks forward to assessing how the genetic component affects stress, as well as factors of age, gender and social status.

Sarah Spivack can be reached via e-mail at Sarah.Spivack@wildcat.arizona.edu.