The Poor Face Higher, ‘Toxic’ Levels of Stress

[n2doc]

By RICK NAUERT

A comprehensive multistate review finds that the poor face chronic stress from a variety of sources. The stress ranges from concerns regarding parenting to discrimination — and disproportionately affects poor mothers and fathers.

“Those who are poor have much higher stress than those who are not. In fact, being poor was associated with more of almost every kind of stress,” said Dr. Chris Dunkel Schetter, a professor of psychology in UCLA’s College of Letters and Science and the study’s lead author.

The report found that although people with higher incomes have lower levels of stress overall, stress levels aren’t reduced as much for higher-income African-Americans as they are for higher-income whites.

Researchers also learned that Latinos — especially recent immigrants — tend to have lower levels of stress than other groups.

The research is based on extensive interviews with 2,448 mothers who had given birth within the previous month, and 1,383 partners or fathers.

more

http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/12/03/poor-face-higher-toxic-levels-of-stress/62787.html

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[Igel]

2. Seems reasonable.

Among the other noteworthy findings:
•White women had more stress related to their pregnancies than African-American and Hispanic women;
•A mother who wasn’t living with the father of her baby was likely to have higher stress levels than one who lived with the baby’s father;
•African-American fathers were exposed to everyday incidents of racism and discrimination — a highly stressful experience — much more frequently than any other group;
•Low-income African-Americans had lower financial stress than low-income whites and Hispanics;
•Low-income Latino mothers and fathers were less likely to feel that life is uncontrollable and overwhelming — and reported less stress from major life events than African-Americans and whites;
•Recent immigrants from Latin American countries demonstrated less stress than Latin Americans who have lived in the U.S. for longer durations or were born in the U.S.;
•No single ethnic group had higher overall stress levels than the others, but each showed higher stress due to certain stressors.

“Our ideas about poverty and race are often inaccurate,” said Dunkel Schetter.

What I've noticed about stress in the last few years is that much of it is internally-triggered. It's not the situation, it's your response to a situation. That really depends on what you carry around inside you, how you're conditioned, how your expectations are met or not met, the extent to which you must fit a certain role or must be in control of circumstances. The most overtly stressed are sometimes those who have gone from $180k/year to $50k/year, not those making do with a constant $25k/year.

Lots of people won't like this study--and it's likely that the methodology will have flaws that will lead some to immediately dismiss the entire study rather than let it challenge precconceived ideas. (Personally I really like studies in which the authors are able to say, "We had these hypotheses"--and then they say things that seem common-sense--"but in the end we couldn't sustain them". Sometimes it'll be those who don't like the "hegemony" of a certain family structure, advocates for a particular race or ethnicity or gender or social policy. Something. Typically a priori.