Blackwell Reference Online

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Stressful life events are discrete social experiences or life changes that require individual adjustment or manifest themselves in emotional arousal or physical reactions. The defining characteristic of life events as stressors is that they are observable life changes that have relatively clear onsets and endings. This quality of discreteness distinguishes stressful life events from chronic stressors that typically have more insidious onsets and whose conclusions are less easily demarcated. Chronic stressors tend also to have longer time courses than life events. Interest in the relationship between stressful life events and health can be traced to Hans Selye's biological research which concluded that events that constitute a threat to the organism produce a series of responses, some of which are adaptive and others of which are maladaptive. Wheaton (1994) argued that an engineering model of stress may be more useful conceptually to social science researchers because it conceives of stress as an external force or pressure that exceeds the capacity to adjust. Both formulations distinguish between relatively discrete or eventful stressors and more continuous, ongoing challenges or threats. The early work of Thomas Holmes and Robert Rahe in developing a life events checklist (the Social Readjustment Rating Scale) stimulated much of the subsequent research on stressful life events ... log in or subscribe to read full text