No one is easy to stress. Decades of research have revealed that major life events, such as the death of a spouse or starting a new job, can sap a lot of our energy and attention. , research is progressing to understand how the small everyday stressors shape our moods and experiences. Since 1995, David Almeida, a developmental psychologist and professor of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, has tracked daily life stressors in a group of more than 3,000 adults. The silver lining of aging he discovered and the difficulty that domestic or global events can turn against us.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
You’ve been tracking people’s everyday experiences for 20 years. How did that change your perspective as a psychologist?
My work seeks to characterize a day in an individual’s life. We look at how people spend their time, how they experience stressors and positive events, and their mood and physical symptoms. It charts how this changes from day to day, the ups and downs of daily experience. I’m a psychologist, but my unit of analysis is the day, not the person.
The more I delved into this piece, the more I began to realize that people are actually different from themselves every day, just as you are different from someone else. It’s not just based on averages.
How do you track your daily stressors?
At the end of each day, ask them to answer a series of structured questions. Initially it used a phone, but now uses a web-based approach. Ask how they spent their time, their moods, physical symptoms, who they interacted with, and ask a number of questions about the types of stressors they experienced during the day. A sample of saliva is also collected for volume determination.
That way, we’ve worked with a lot of people. I would like to acknowledge the wonderful participants in the National Everyday Life Survey, part of a larger study called Midlife in America, who have shared their lives with me over the last 20 years. I am honored to be able to follow them.
You recently published the results of a 20-year analysis of 2,845 adults (ages 22 to 77 at start). The work found that people seemed to be less stressed as they got older. can you unpack it?
Yes, finally good news for everyday stress! It seems to be getting better little by little. Younger people were found to report being exposed to more stressful events (those that were difficult, upsetting, or confusing) than older people. That is, a person in his 20s might report stressors of at least 40-45% of the day, but by the time he reaches his 70s, he’s probably reduced to 20-25% of the day.
In addition, we investigated how much pain people were experiencing or how they felt. response Emphasize. We see the same type of pattern here, with young people experiencing more distress on stressor days than older people. However, around the age of 55, the age-related advantage of improving responses to stress gradually fades and plateaus.
Why is age an advantage in coping with stress?
I think three reasons can contribute and work together. It has to do with the social roles people live in. When you’re young, these roles include being a parent to young children, starting a job, and forming new relationships. Like competition, a new role can be stressful.
Second, as we get older, we realize that we have only a limited amount of life left, and we want to make the most of it.
The third reason that interests me the most is that thanks to experience, opportunities and past stressors, we learn how to deal with them and become experts in dealing with day-to-day stressors as we age.
Does it explain why the study suggests older people are happier From younger?
As people get older, they can list all the things they shouldn’t look forward to: declining physical health, loss of friends, illness, and cognitive decline. It is inconceivable. But we know that as people get older, gain satisfaction of life.
That said, there is a point where this pattern stops. I think you’re going to see a time in your life well into your 80’s or his 90’s when things are really hard and life satisfaction is declining.
How do the economic and political uncertainties that underlie our lives affect our daily stresses?
We were able to explore the impact of the 2008 recession and the period that followed. Our data show that compared to 1995, adults in 2010 have more stressful daily lives and are more distressed by their experiences. Our hypothesis is that this reflects historical changes such as recessions and the use of technology that has changed social interactions. From there, we can deduce how recessions and other changes will affect us. Future work would like to see what consequences the pandemic has had. For example, you may not see many age benefits during this time.
But what really struck me in my analysis of the 2008 recession is that this stress difference seems to be concentrated in the middle-aged. I thought young people just starting their careers and old people who had reached retirement age would be the worst. But no, it was adults in his mid-40s to his mid-60s who reported higher levels of emotional distress. I think it has to do with the social role of middle-aged adults. It worries not only the child, but also the parent.
As a practical matter, should we try to remove all stressors from our daily lives?
There are actually good things about dealing with daily stress. If you say that your life is stress-free, consider yourself lucky and happy. However, they also report less positive things in their lives. They are the lesser people in life and perform worse on cognitive tests.
that is reactivity Emphasize what really matters to your health and well-being – how you respond to it. It’s actually the emotional response, not the number of stressors, that can cause, for example, cardiovascular disease, exacerbate inflammation, and contribute to premature death.
How do I manage my responses?
There are things that individuals can do, such as eating well and getting enough sleep at night. But it must be remembered that not everyone can do it. Personal choice isn’t everything.
Groups marginalized by race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation were found to be more stress-reactive. They don’t always have the resources to deal with daily stressors themselves. For example, when the body is stressed it tries to mobilize energy. So getting up and going for a walk is the best way to stave off this emotional reaction. However, many people cannot get up and take a walk outside during work.
We need to start talking about how to provide resources to empower people to take care of themselves.
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