This drastic increase in population aging underscores the need to better understand experiences during this life stage, especially stressful experiences. Below, we have defined and identified measures of various types of stress to assist researchers interested in studying stress in later life.

 

Chronic stress/strain are ongoing circumstances (Dunkel-Schetter & Dolbier, 2011; Wheaton, 1994) and/or enduring problems linked to social roles (Perlin & Schooler, 1978). Unlike other types of stress, these events often occur without clear start and/or end points. Measures typically focus on specific types of events/experiences, such as caregiving, financial strain, and discrimination, which are especially applicable for older adults. Discrimination can be experienced along a variety of sociodemographic characteristics, including age (ageism—prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes based on age; WHO, 2018); an example measure is The Everyday Ageism Scale (Allen et al., 2021).

 

Traumatic events are defined by the American Psychiatric Association (2013, p. 527) as witnessing or experiencing “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence” (e.g., death of spouse/child, diagnosis of life-threatening illness). See Mayer and Crosswell’s Traumatic Life Events entry for a list of measurement tools; timescales vary across measures and can include 6-month, 1-year, or lifetime prevalence. Lifetime prevalence of exposure to traumatic events in adulthood increases with age (Bürgin et al., 2020). 

 

Stressful/major life events measures were previously complied by Mayer (2018) in the Major Life Events entry. Two additional measures were identified for use with (and from) older adult samples: Elders Life Stress Inventory (ELSI; Aldwin, 1990); Louisville Older Person Events Schedule (LOPES; Murrell & Norris, 1984). ELSI was developed from the observation that existing life scale inventories included events that generally occurred more with younger adults (e.g., birth of child). The ELSI includes both egocentric (e.g., divorce) and nonegocentric events (e.g., child’s divorce or separation) that occurred in the past year; the measure includes prompts for both exposure and event severity.   

 

Hassles or daily stressors reflect challenges of daily living (Almeida, 2005). Although older age appears protective against exposure to hassles, severity ratings (Aldwin et al., 2014) and reactivity (Almeida et al., 2023) increase or remain stable, respectively. Measures include the Daily Inventory of Stressful Events (DISE: Almeida et al., 2002) and Hassles and Uplifts Scale-Revised (DeLongis et al., 1988); both assess events in the past day (i.e., 24 hours). The DISE uses an interview approach to gage various aspects of the experiences: (1) what event(s) occurred (e.g., health, work/education); (2) who was involved (e.g., self, other); (3) threat (e.g., loss, frustration); (4) level of disruption (low or medium severity); (5) level of stressfulness (e.g., somewhat stressful), and; (6) primary appraisal across domains (e.g., health/safety, finances).  

 

Author(s) & Reviewer(s): Prepared by Maria Kurth, PhD, and David Almeida, PhD.

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Version date: September 2023

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Related Constructs: Major Life Events; Traumatic Life Events; Caregiving, Financial Strain, and Discrimination

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References:

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Aldwin, C.M. (1990). The elders life stress inventory: Egocentric and nonegocentric stress. In M.A. Parris Stephems, J.H. Crowther, S.E. Hobfoll, & D.L. Tennenbaum (Eds), Stress and coping in later-life families (pp.49-69). Hemisphere Publishing Corporation.

 

Aldwin, C. M., Jeong, Y.-J., Igarashi, H., & Spiro, A. III. (2014). Do hassles and uplifts change with age? Longitudinal findings from the VA Normative Aging Study. Psychology and Aging, 29(1), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035042

 

Allen, J. O., Solway, E., Kirch, M., Singer, D., Kullgren, J. T., & Malani, P. N. (2021). The everyday ageism scale: Development and evaluation. Journal of Aging and Health, 34(2), 147-157. https://doi.org/10.1177/08982643211036131

 

Almeida, D. M. (2005). Resilience and vulnerability to daily stressors assessed via diary methods. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(2), 64-68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00336.x

 

Almeida, D. M., Rush, J., Mogle, J., Piazza, J. R., Cerino, E., & Charles, S. T. (2023). Longitudinal change in daily stress across 20 years of adulthood: Results form the National Study of Daily Experiences. Developmental Psychology, 59(3), 515-523. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001469

 

Almeida, D. M., Wethington, E., & Kessler, R. C. (2002). The Daily Inventory of Stressful Experiences (DISE): An interview-based approach for measuring daily stressors. Assessment, 9(1), 41-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191102091006

 

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596

 

Berry Mendez, W. (2017). Stigma, discrimination, and vigilance for bias. Stress Measurement Network. https://www.stressmeasurement.org/stigma-discrimination-and-vigilance

 

Bürgin, D., Boonmann, C., Schmid, M., Tripp, P., & O’Donovan, A. (2020). Fact or artefact? Childhood adversity and adulthood trauma in the U.S. population-based Health and Retirement Study. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1), article no. 1721146. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1721146

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Caplan, Z. (2023, May 25). U.S. older population grew from 2010 to 2020 at fastest rate since 1880 to 1890. U.S. Census Bureau, US Department of Commerce. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/05/2020-census-united-states-older-population-grew.html

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DeLongis, A., Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1988). Hassles and Uplifts Scale--Revised [Database record].. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/t06228-000

 

Dunkel Schetter, C., & Dolbier, C. (2011). Resilience in the context of chronic stress and health

in older adults. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(9), 634-652.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00379.x

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Murrell, S.A., Norris, F.H., & Hutchins, G.L. (1984). Distribution and desirability of life events in older adults: Population and policy implications. Journal of Community Psychology, 12(4), 301-311. https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6629(198410)12:4<301::AID-JCOP2290120403>3.0.CO;2-I

 

Perlin, L.I., & Schooler, C. (1987). The structure of coping. Journal of Health & Social Behavior, 19(1), 2-21. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136319

 

Prather, A. A. (2018). Financial strain. Stress Measurement Network. https://www.stressmeasurement.org/financial-strain

 

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). Plenum.

 

World Health Organization (2021, March 18). Ageing: Ageism. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/ageing-ageism

 

World Health Organization (2022, Oct 1). Ageing and health. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-health