The many sources of Stress and the Hassles of Daily Life.

Older people experience much less stress than any other demographic group

We live in a world with many sources of stress, with many things to do and to worry about. These include the pressures of life at work and at home, problems with money, health, loneliness, children and privacy.

When shown a list of 14 different “hassles” which tend to be associated with stress the hassles which are experienced by the largest numbers of people are related to money (rising prices, 74%; concerns about money for emergencies, 53% and not having enough money for basic necessities, 36%); having too many things to do (56%); having trouble sleeping (53%); concerns about health (43%); and the illness of a family member (36%).

Many, but fewer, people say they experienced having too much information to process at any one time (33%), feeling lonely (29%) or problems at work (24%). And, of course, some people experience many more hassles, and experience much more stress than others.

These are some of the results of a nationwide survey of 2,747 adults surveyed online between September 7 and 13, 2006.

Variations among different demographic groups

Analysis of the results of this survey shows that different demographic groups experience more or less, and different sources of, stress. The one group that stands out as having much less stress than all of the others is older adults (9% of “matures”, aged 61 and older, report experiencing a lot of stress in their lives, compared to 25% or more of other generations). While “baby boomers” (aged 42 to 60), like those younger than them are subject to many sources of stress, the matures are much less stressed. They are by a wide margin less likely to worry about having too many things to do, to have concerns about money for emergencies or basic necessities, to feel that they have too much information to process at anyone time or (and this may be a surprise) to feel lonely. Indeed, the younger the people are, the more likely they are to experience loneliness. Those who say they have been lonely in the last month include 45 percent of “echo boomers” (aged 18 to 29), 31 percent of “generation Xers” (aged 30 to 41), 24 percent of baby boomers and 18 percent of matures.

There are many other differences between different demographic groups. For example:

Unsurprisingly, those with low household incomes are much more likely to experience problems with rising prices and to have concerns about money for emergencies and basic necessities. On the other hand, those with higher household incomes are more likely to feel that they have too many things to do, to have problems at work or have problems with aging parents.

Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered (GLBT) are more likely than heterosexuals to have concerns about their health or to worry about money and to be lonely.

People with disabilities experience more stress and more hassles than other people in relation to money, sleeping, health and loneliness.

Hassles are highly correlated with feeling stressed

The survey finds very strong associations between almost all of the 14 hassles and feeling stressed. For example:

Fully 80 percent of those who experience a lot of stress say that they have had too many things to do in the last month. This falls to only 29 percent of those who do not experience much stress.

Fully 76 percent of those who experience a lot of stress say they had trouble sleeping compared to only 29 percent of those with little stress.

Fully 71 percent of those who have a lot of stress say they experienced concerns about money for emergencies in the last month compared to only 30 percent among those whose lives are not much stressed.

A recent survey published in The Journal of the American Medical Association compared the health status of comparable groups (middle-aged whites) in England and the United States and found that Americans were much more likely than their English counterparts to suffer from seven common diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and cancer. The research did not set out to explain these differences. However, one hypothesis is that Americans tend to experience more stress than the English. And, of course, a growing body of research has reported that increased stress is associated with higher incidence of a number of common diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.

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