Strategies for Measuring Stress in Studies of Psychiatric and Physical Disorders

Abstract

Abstract Stress has long been a major focus among researchers interested in environmental and psychosocial influences on health. However, the way in which the term “stress” has been used in this voluminous literature has not been consistent. Indeed, some commentators have gone as far as to argue that the term stress has so many different meanings that it has become a useless concept (Ader, 1980; Elliot & Eisdorfer, 1982). Although we disagree with this premise, we recognize that there is confusion about the meaning and measurement of stress. This volume attempts to clear up some of that confusion by providing conceptual and practical advice for formulating questions about the relation between stress and disease and for selecting appropriate stress measures to test these questions.