Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of the stress process, which is the conceptual framework that examines the interrelationships among the stressors to which people might be exposed, and the mediating and moderating conditions that help to regulate the impact of the stressors on various aspects of people’s mental health. Of salient sociological importance, the stress process also takes into account the bearing of status placement on the stressors people experience, the mediating and moderating resources and conditions to which they have access, and the symptoms of mental health they manifest. Over the 30 years since its inception, it has helped to lead researchers to a greater understanding of the connections between mental health and its complex psychosocial causes. Yet, there are many gaps in this understanding, and some of these have been singled out here as promising targets for future research.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Agnew, R. (2002). Experienced, vicarious, and anticipated strain: An exploratory study on physical victimization and delinquency. Justice Quarterly, 19, 603–632.
Aneshensel, C. S. (1992). Social stress: Theory and research. Annual Review of Sociology, 18, 15–38.
Aneshensel, C. S. (2002). Theory-based data analysis for the social sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Aneshensel, C. S. (2005). Research in mental health: Social etiology versus social consequences. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46, 221–228.
Aneshensel, C. S., & Huba, G. J. (1984). An integrative causal model of the antecedents and consequences of depression over one year. In J. R. Greenley (Ed.), Research in community and mental health (Vol. 4, pp. 35–72). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Aneshensel, C. S., Rutter, C. M., & Lachenbruch, P. A. (1991). Social structure, stress, and mental health: Competing conceptual and analytical models. American Sociological Review, 56, 166–178.
Ben-Zur, H. (2002). Coping, affect and aging: The roles of mastery and self-esteem. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 357–372.
Bertera, E. M. (2005). Mental health in U.S. adults: The role of positive social support and social negativity in personal relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, 33–48.
Bierman, A., & Pearlin, L. I. (2012). SES, trajectories of physical limitations, and change in depression in late life. Society and Mental Health, 1, 139–152
Birditt, K. S., Brown, E., Orbuch, T. L., & McIlvane, J. M. (2010). Marital conflict behaviors and implications for divorce over 16 years. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 1188–1204.
Cairney, J., Corna, L. M., Veldhuizen, S., Kurdyak, P., & Streiner, D. L. (2008). The social epidemiology of affective and anxiety disorders in later life in Canada. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 53, 104–111.
Caplan, L. J., & Schooler, C. (2007). Socioeconomic status and financial coping strategies: The mediating role of perceived control. Social Psychology Quarterly, 70, 43–58.
Cobb, S. (1976). Social support as a moderator of life stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 38, 300–314.
Conger, K. J., Williams, S. T., Little, W. M., Masyn, K. E., & Shebloski, B. (2009). Development of mastery during adolescence: The role of family problem-solving. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 50, 99–114.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 219–239.
Gadalla, T. M. (2009). Determinants, correlates and mediators of psychological distress: A longitudinal study. Social Science & Medicine, 68, 2199–2205.
Gayman, M. D., Turner, R. J., & Cui, M. (2008). Physical limitations and depressive symptoms: Exploring the nature of the association. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 63B, S219–S228.
Glavin, P., Schieman, S., & Reid, S. (2011). Boundary-spanning work demands and their consequences for guilt and psychological distress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 52, 43–57.
Gracia, E., & Herrero, J. (2004). Personal and situational determinants of relationship-specific perceptions of social support. Social Behavior and Personality, 32, 459–476.
Green, B. L., & Rodgers, A. (2001). Determinants of social support among low-income mothers: A longitudinal analysis. American Journal of Community Psychology, 29, 419–440.
Green, J. G., McLaughlin, K. A., Berglund, P. A., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., et al. (2010). Childhood adversities and adult psychiatric disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication I: Associations with first onset of DSM-IV disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67, 113–123.
Horwitz, A. V. (2007). Transforming normality into pathology: The DSM and the outcomes of stressful social arrangements. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 48, 211–222.
Horwitz, A. V., & Wakefield, J. C. (2007). The loss of sadness: How psychiatry transformed normal sorrow into depressive disorder. New York: Oxford University Press.
Horwitz, A. V., Widom, C. S., McLaughlin, J., & White, H. R. (2001). The impact of childhood abuse and neglect on adult mental health: A prospective study. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 42, 184–201.
House, J. S., & Kahn, R. L. (1985). Measures and concepts of social support. In S. Cohen & S. L. Syme (Eds.), Social support and health (pp. 83–108). New York: Academic.
Hyman, H. H. (1953). The value system of different classes: A social psychological contribution to the analysis of stratification. In R. Bendix & S. M. Lipset (Eds.), Class, status, and power: A reader in social stratification (pp. 426–441). New York: Free Press.
Kahn, J. R., & Pearlin, L. I. (2006). Financial strain over the life course and health among older adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 47, 17–31.
Kessler, R. C., & McLeod, J. D. (1984). Sex differences in vulnerability to undesirable life events. American Sociological Review, 49, 620–631.
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lincoln, K. D. (2008). Personality, negative interactions, and mental health. The Social Service Review, 82, 223–251.
McLeod, J. D. (2003). Social aspects of stress: Networks, choices, and values. In S. H. Zarit, L. I. Pearlin, & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Personal control in social and life course contexts (pp. 173–188). New York: Springer.
Menaghan, E. G. (1983). Individual coping efforts: Moderators of the relationship between life stress and mental health outcomes. In H. B. Kaplan (Ed.), Psychosocial stress: Trends in theory and research (pp. 157–191). New York: Academic.
Mensah, F. K., & Hobcraft, J. (2008). Childhood deprivation, health and development: Associations with adult health in the 1958 and 1970 British prospective birth cohort studies. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62, 599–606.
Milkie, M. A., Bierman, A., & Schieman, S. (2008). How adult children influence older parents’ mental health: Integrating stress-process and life-course perspectives. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71, 86–105.
Mirowsky, J., & Ross, C. E. (2002). Measurement for a human science. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43, 152–170.
Newsom, J. T., Nishishiba, M., Morgan, D. L., & Rook, K. S. (2003). The relative importance of three domains of positive and negative social exchanges: A longitudinal model with comparable measures. Psychology and Aging, 18, 746–754.
Pearlin, L. I. (1983). Role strains and personal stress. In H. B. Kaplan (Ed.), Psychosocial stress: Trends in theory and research (pp. 3–32). New York: Academic.
Pearlin, L. I. (1988). Social structure and social values: The regulation of structural effects. In H. J. O’Gorman, C. Bay, & C. Bay (Eds.), Surveying social life: Papers in honor of Herbert H. Hyman (pp. 252–264). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Pearlin, L. I. (1989). The sociological study of stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 30, 241–256.
Pearlin, L. I. (1991). The study of coping: An overview of problems and directions. In J. Eckenrode (Ed.), The social context of coping (pp. 261–276). New York: Plenum Press.
Pearlin, L. I. (1999). The stress process revisited: Reflections on concepts and their interrelationships. In C. S. Aneshensel & J. C. Phelan (Eds.), Handbook of the sociology of mental health (pp. 395–415). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
Pearlin, L. I., & Aneshensel, C. S. (1986). Coping and social supports: Their functions and applications. In L. H. Aiken & D. Mechanic (Eds.), Application of social science to clinical medicine and health policy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Pearlin, L. I., Aneshensel, C. S., & LeBlanc, A. J. (1997). The forms and mechanisms of stress proliferation: The case of AIDS caregivers. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 223–236.
Pearlin, L. I., & Johnson, J. S. (1977). Marital status, life strains and depression. American Sociological Review, 42, 704–715.
Pearlin, L. I., & Kohn, M. L. (1966). Social class, occupation, and parental values: A cross-national study. American Sociological Review, 31, 466–479.
Pearlin, L. I., & McCall, M. E. (1990). Occupational stress and marital support: A description of microprocesses. In J. Eckenrode & S. Gore (Eds.), Stress between work and family (pp. 39–60). New York: Plenum Press.
Pearlin, L. I., Menaghan, E. G., Lieberman, M. A., & Mullan, J. T. (1981). The stress process. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22, 337–356.
Pearlin, L. I., Nguyen, K. B., Schieman, S., & Milkie, M. A. (2007). The life-course origins of mastery among older people. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 48, 164–179.
Pearlin, L. I., & Radabaugh, C. W. (1976). Economic strains and the coping functions of alcohol. The American Journal of Sociology, 82, 652–663.
Pearlin, L. I., & Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19, 2–21.
Pearlin, L. I., & Skaff, M. M. (1996). Stress and the life course: A paradigmatic alliance. The Gerontologist, 36, 239–247.
Pudrovska, T., Schieman, S., Pearlin, L. I., & Nguyen, K. (2005). The sense of mastery as a mediator and moderator in the association between economic hardship and health in late life. Journal of Aging and Health, 17, 634–660.
Rook, K. S. (1984). The negative side of social interaction: Impact on psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 1097–1108.
Rosenberg, M., & McCullough, B. C. (1981). Mattering: Inferred significance and mental health among adolescents. Research in Community and Mental Health, 2, 161–182.
Ross, C. E., & Jang, S. J. (2000). Neighborhood disorder, fear, and mistrust: The buffering role of social ties with neighbors. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 401–420.
Ross, C. E., & Mirowsky, J. (1989). Explaining the social patterns of depression: Control and problem-solving–or support and talking? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 30, 206–219.
Schieman, S., & Meersman, S. C. (2004). Neighborhood problems and health among older adults: Received and donated social support and the sense of mastery as effect modifiers. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 59, S89–S97.
Schieman, S., Nguyen, K., & Elliott, D. (2003). Religiosity, socioeconomic status, and the sense of mastery. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, 202–221.
Schieman, S., & Plickert, G. (2008). How knowledge is power: Education and the sense of control. Social Forces, 87, 153–183.
Simon, R. W. (1997). The meanings individuals attach to role identities and their implications for mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 256–274.
Springer, K. W., Sheridan, J., Kuo, D., & Carnes, M. (2007). Long-term physical and mental health consequences of childhood physical abuse: Results from a large population-based sample of men and women. Child Abuse & Neglect, 31, 517–530.
Starcke, K., Wolf, O. T., Markowitsch, H. J., & Brand, M. (2008). Anticipatory stress influences decision making under explicit risk conditions. Behavioral Neuroscience, 122, 1352–1360.
Stice, E., Ragan, J., & Randall, P. (2004). Prospective relations between social support and depression: Differential direction of effects for parent and peer support? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 155–159.
Taylor, J., & Turner, R. J. (2001). A longitudinal study of the role and significance of mattering to others for depressive symptoms. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 42, 310–325.
Taylor, S. E., & Stanton, A. L. (2007). Coping resources, coping processes, and mental health. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 3, 377–401.
Thoits, P. A. (1982). Conceptual, methodological, and theoretical problems in studying social support as a buffer against life stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 23, 145–159.
Thoits, P. A. (1983). Multiple identities and psychological well-being: A reformulation and test of the social isolation hypothesis. American Sociological Review, 48, 174–187.
Thoits, P. A. (2011). Mechanisms linking social ties and support to physical and mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 52, 145–161.
Turner, R. J. (1981). Social support as a contingency in psychological well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22, 357–367.
Turner, R. J. (2010). Understanding health disparities: The promise of the stress process model. In W. R. Avison, C. S. Aneshensel, S. Schieman, & B. Wheaton (Eds.), Advances in the conceptualization of the stress process: Essays in honor of Leonard I. Pearlin (pp. 3–21). New York: Springer.
Wallace, J. E. (2005). Job stress, depression and work-to-family conflict: A test of the strain and buffer hypotheses. Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations, 60, 510–539.
Warner, D. F., & Hayward, M. D. (2006). Early-life origins of the race gap in men’s mortality. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 47, 209–226.
Wethington, E. (2000). Contagion of stress. Advances in Group Processes, 17, 229–253.
Wheaton, B. (1994). Sampling the stress universe. In W. R. Avison & I. H. Gotlib (Eds.), Stress and mental health: Contemporary issues and prospects for the future (pp. 77–114). New York: Plenum Press.
Wheaton, B. (2010). The stress process as a successful paradigm. In W. R. Avison, C. S. Aneshensel, S. Schieman, & B. Wheaton (Eds.), Advances in the conceptualization of the stress process: Essays in honor of Leonard I. Pearlin (pp. 231–252). New York: Springer.
Wickrama, K. A. S., Conger, R. D., & Abraham, W. T. (2005). Early adversity and later health: The intergenerational transmission of adversity through mental disorder and physical illness. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 60B, S125–S129.
Wickrama, K. A. S., Conger, R. D., Wallace, L. E., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (2003). Linking early social risks to impaired physical health during the transition to adulthood. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44, 61–74.
Williams, K. (2003). Has the future of marriage arrived? A contemporary examination of gender, marriage, and psychological well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44, 470–487.
Wilson, G., & Mossakowski, K. (2009). Fear of job loss: Racial/ethnic differences in privileged occupations. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 6, 357–374.
Yang, Y. (2006). How does functional disability affect depressive symptoms in late life? The role of perceived social support and psychological resources. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 47, 355–372.
Zivin, K., Paczkowski, M., & Galea, S. (2011). Economic downturns and population mental health: Research findings, gaps, challenges and priorities. Psychological Medicine, 41, 1343–1348.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pearlin, L.I., Bierman, A. (2013). Current Issues and Future Directions in Research into the Stress Process. In: Aneshensel, C.S., Phelan, J.C., Bierman, A. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4276-5_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4276-5_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4275-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4276-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)