Stress and Trauma: Week 1

What is a psychological stress response?

Perveiving that demands exceed our ability to cope

What is a biological stress resposne?

Pupils dilate, respiration quickens; bronchial tubes dilate; perspiration begins; heart rate increases; muscles tense and may tremble

What is a stress response?

The psychological and biological responses to stress

What is a stress exposure? 

Stressful events, do not necessarily cause a stress response

What are the four types of stress exposures?

Crises, major life events, daily hassles, ambient

What is a crises? 

• Unforeseen, unpredictable, uncontrollable events

• (ex: natural disaster)

What is a major life event?

• Infrequent events, often involving life transitions; can be positive or negative (ex: having a baby)

What’s a daily hassle?

• Frequent minor nuisances that strain our ability to cope (ex: homework)

What is an ambient stress exposure? 

Chronic, negative, non-urgent, physically perceptable, unchangeable (ex: traffic)

What are the four theoretical perspectives on stress?

• adaptation

• demands exceed resources

• Interruption of goals

• threat or harm

What is the “adaptation” theoretical perspective of stress?

• Views the stressfulness of an event as the amount of adaptation or change it requires of an average individual

• Positive events can be stressors if they require substantial adaptation

What is the “demands exceed resources” theoretical perspective of stress?

• Comes from job stress literature

• Focus is on amount of demands of task and amount of control over task

• High demand/low control situations are stressful 

What is the “interruptions of goals” theoretical perspective of stress?

• Threat is primarily rooted in disruption of roles or plans in teh context of a person’s life goal

What is the “threat or harm” theoretical perspective of stress?

This is the most common perspective

• Stressful events are those that are consensually seen as harmful or threatening

• Amount of harm, intensity, duration, and the extent to which an event is objectively uncontrollable contribute to the potential magnitude of consensual threat

What did the NCHA undergrad assessment find on college student stress?

• 78% of undergrads experienced moderate to high levels of stress in the past 30 days

• Cisgender women and trans and gender nonconforming students experienced higher levels of stress than cisgender men

• 75% of students reported 3+ stressors in the past year (most common were academics, finances, procrastination, personal appearance)

• More students said that stress negatively affected their academic performance more than all other factors except procrastination

What did the CSHS survey find about college student stress?

1. Yielded much lower estimates of stressor exposure than the NCHA survey

   1. Due to more extreme question wording: failed a class vs. academics are impacted, excessive debt vs financial challenges, terminated relationship vs. relationship struggles

What is a consistent finding in studies that look at stress in college students?

Students say stress is one of the factors that most often negative affected their performance

What is the College Student Stress Scale? What are its findings?

A measure designed to assess college student stress

1. How frequently are you distressed and anxious about… (list of stressors)

2. How frequently do you questions your ability handle difficulties in your life or your ability to attain your goals

1. Found that academics, relationships, and finances were the top stressors

2. On average, students “sometimes” felt overwhelmed

What are four methods of studying college student stress?

large scale studies, college student stress scale, daily assessments of stressors, qualitative methods

What is a daily assessment of stressors and what are its findings?

1. Yields high rates of stress exposure

2. Send brief surveys to students every evening

3. Checklist of ~10 stressors

4. Students reported an average of more than two stressors every day

What are qualitative methods of assessing stress in college students? 

1. Ask students to describe current stressors and then code them into categories

   1. Academics, relationships, but also work and health were the top stressors

2. You get to hear from students themselves what is relevant and stressful for them, which can paint a fuller picture

Descrive the prevalence of stressor exposure and stress responses in college students

• Stressor prevalence depends on the specificity and length of the checklist and time frame of assessment

  • Longer stressor lists yield higher rates

  • More “severe” stressor descriptions yield lower rates

  • Short time frame yields higher rates

• Major themes that emerge: academics, relationships, finances/work (across methodologies)

• Students perceive their own stress levels to be moderate-high

• Students say that stress affects their academic performance more than other factors

Critique methods of assessing stressor exposure and stress responses in college students and how they affect results

• Does the measure assess stress responses or stressor exposures? Are the questions clear and unambiguous? Do they assess the most relevant stressors? Is the time frame appropriate? Are the samples representative? 

Describe stress responses and stress exposures

• Stress responses are the psychological and biological responses to stress

• Stress exposures are the “events” themselves

• These exposures do not necessarily cause a stress response

Describe different kinds of stress exposures

• Stressors can involve crises, major life events, daily hassles, and ambient stressors

• Four theoretical perspectives: nature of stressors include adaptation, demands exceeding resources, interruption of goals, and threat or harm (the most common)

Describe what stressors were most common among students during the pandemic

1. Similar categories as before (e.g., school) but slightly different in nature

2. Some completely new (e.g., missing friends, uncertainty related to COVID)

3. School still a major stressor

Describe changes in stressors over time (how did stressors change from Spring 2020 to Spring 2021?)

Lower ratings in Spring 2021 (less stressful)

Describe changes in perceived stress (stress response) over time

Students reported more perceived stress than pre-pandemic, but difference generally small and some students are at more risk of stress regardless of the pandemic (cisgender women, LGBQ students, students with disabilities)

What were the most common stressors for students during the pandemic (Spring 2020)?

• Miss seeing friends

• Less motivated

• Uncertainty related to COVID

• Hard to do all online classes

• Concerned about future career

What were changes in perceived stress (fall 2019, 2020— spring 2020)

Students reported more perceived stress in Spring 2020 than in Fall 2019 or Fall 2020

The difference was statistically significant, but not a large difference

What were changes from spring 2018 at umn to spring 2020?

• Students were more stressed in Spring 2020 than Spring 2018 at UMN

  • This was data compared from UMN students in different years

  • 2018: 5.94 stress; 2020: 6.1 stress

  • 2018: 6.28 poor mental health; 2020: 8.86 poor mental health

Which students were more stressed regardless of the pandemic? 

• Some students were more stressed than others regardless of the pandemic (UMN data)- and these differences were bigger than the differences between years

  • Cisgender women reported more stress than cisgender men

  • LGBQ students reported more stress than straight students 

  • Students with disabilities reported more stress than students without disabilities

  • Lowest risk: Straight men without disabilities

  • Highest risk: Sexual minority women with disabilities