The Middle Ages may be much more stressful than the 90s

Pennsylvania State University Park-If life is more stressful than it was decades ago, you are not alone. Even before the new coronavirus swept the earth, new research found that today’s life may be more stressful than it was in the 1990s.

Researchers led by Penn State have found that all age groups have a slight increase in daily stress in the 2010s compared to the 1990s. But when researchers limited the sample to people between the ages of 45 and 64, daily stress increased sharply.

According to David M. Almeida, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies in Pennsylvania: “It’s about a week’s worth of stress per year. But what surprised me was that middle-aged people reported far more stressors, which was 19% more stress in 2010 than in 1990. There are many. Year. “

Almeida said the findings were part of a larger project aimed at discovering whether the health of the middle of American lives was changing over time.

“Sure, when you talk to people, they seem to think that everyday life is more busy and not certain for now,” Almeida said. “So we really wanted to collect that data, run an analysis and test some of those ideas.”

In the study, researchers used data collected from 1,499 adults in 1995 and 782 different adults in 2012. Almeida aims to study two cohorts of people born at the same age but at different times at the time the data were collected. All study participants were interviewed daily for eight consecutive days.

During a daily interview, researchers asked participants about the stressful experiences of the last 24 hours. For example, discussions with family and friends, and overwhelming feelings at home and at work. Participants were also asked how serious their stress was and whether their stressors were likely to affect other areas of their lives.

“We could estimate not only how often people experienced stress, but also what those stress factors mean to them,” Almeida said. “For example, this stress affected their finances and future plans, and having a cohort of these two people compares the 1990 daily stress process to the 2010 daily stress process. I was able to.”

After analyzing the data, the researchers reported that participants had significantly increased daily stress and decreased well-being in the 2010s compared to the 1990s. In addition, participants reported a 27% increase in the belief that stress would affect their finances and a 17% increase in the belief that stress would affect their future plans.

Almeida said people were more stressed now than they were in the 90s, and were surprised by the primarily affected age group.

“We thought that economic uncertainty could make life more stressful for young adults,” Almeida said. “But we didn’t see it. We felt more stressed on middle-aged people, probably due to the uncertain job market where they were also responsible for their parents. It’s because this is the pressure of this generation that’s creating stress. It’s more common in middle-aged people. ”

Almeida recently announced suspicious findings, although there were stereotypes about people experiencing a middle-aged crisis due to fear of death and aging. American psychologist -Suggesting middle-aged distress can be due to a variety of reasons.

“It may be related to middle-aged people being responsible for many people,” Almeida said. “They are the responsibility of their children, often they are their parents, they may also be the responsibility of their employees in the workplace. And with that responsibility comes increased daily stress, Perhaps it is happening in the past rather than now. “

In addition, Almeida said the added stress may be due in part to “speeding up” due to technological advances. This may be especially true during times of stress, such as a coronavirus pandemic.

“People are always using their smartphones, which gives them constant access to news and information, which can be overwhelming,” said Almeida.

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Susan T. Charles, University of California Irvine; Jacqueline Mogul, PA; Johanna Drewelies, Humboldt University Berlin. Oregon State University, Carolyn M. Aldwin. Avron Spiro III, Boston University School of Public Health and Department of Veterans Affairs. And Humboldt University Berlin and Pennsylvania State University Denis Gerstorff also participated in this work.

This study is part of a US mid-term study and is supported by the National Institutes for Aging, John D., Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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