The High Costs of Stress

Stress produces significant costs to adolescents of both a physical and

psychological nature. Their immediate physical reactions typically include a rise in
heart rate and blood pressure, an increase in skin conductance due to sweating, and
the secretion of certain hormones by adrenal glands. In the short term, these
reactions may be helpful in coping with the stressor because they produce a burst of
energy that may improve the immediate response to stress. For instance, because of
immediate physical reactions to stress, a teenager may be able to outrun a thief who
is attempting to steal her iPod (Cacioppo, 1994; Cacioppo et al., 1995).
However, over the long run, the constant wear and tear caused by the
psychological arousal that occurs as the body tries to fight off stress produces
negative effects. For instance, headaches, backaches, skin rashes, indigestion,
chronic fatigue, sleep disturbances, and even the common cold are stress-related
illnesses (Kiecolt-Glaser & Glaser,1991; Cohen, Tyrrell, & Smith 1993; Reid
Patterson, & Snyder, 2002).
Furthermore, ongoing stress can impede the functioning of the immune
system, the system of organs, glands, and cells that make up the bodys defense
against disease. In fact, increasing evidence shows conclusively that stress reduces
the bodys ability to ward off germs, making people more susceptible to disease. For
instance, people exposed to stress often experience such common ailments as
headaches, backaches, skin aches, indigestion, and chronic fatigue. Even the
common cold is associated with stress (Cohen, 1996; Rice, 2000; Cohen et al.,
2003).
Stress may also lead to psychosomatic disorders, medical problems caused
by the interaction of psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties. For instance,
ulcers, asthma, arthritis, and high blood pressure may---although not invariably--- be
produced or worsened by stress (Lepore, Palsane, & Evans, 1991; Coleman,
Friedman, & Burright,1998).
Stress may also cause more serious, even life-threatening illnesses. According
to some research, the greater the number of stressful events an adolescent
experiences over the course of a year, the more likely he or she is to have a major
illness (see Table 14-1; Holmes & Rahe, 1967; Alverdy, Zabonna, & Wu, 2005).
Before you start calculating whether you are overdue for a major illness,
however, keep in mind some limitations to the research. Not everyone who
experiences high stress becomes ill, and weights given to particular stressors
probably vary from one person to the next. Furthermore, there is a kind of circularity
to such listings of stressors: Because the research is correlational, it is possible that
someone who has a major illness to begin with is more likely to experience some of
the stressors on the list. For example, an adolescent may lose a job because of the
effects of an illness, rather than develop an illness because of the loss of a job. Still,

the list of stressors does provide a way to consider how adolescents react on a
physical level to various potentially stressful events in their lives.
Finally, stress can produce reactions that go beyond internalizing disorders,
the kind of physical and psychological problems that primarily affect oneself, such as
depression and anxiety, that we discussed in Chapter 13. Stress can also be at the
root of externalizing disorders, the problems directed outward, toward others, such as
aggression, fighting, destructiveness, and other conduct disorders.
Of course, not everyone reacts to stressors identically. For example, men and
women respond in a different ways to certain kinds of stressors. In one experiment,
when newlyweds engaged in a 30-minute discussion, women responded more
strongly on a psychological level than men at points when the actions of the spouse
were negative or hostile (Kiecott-Glaser et al., 1996; Robles & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2003).
Responses to stress also vary across cultures. One of the most extreme
examples of this phenomenon is the Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome
(SUNDS) that afflicted male Southeast Asian Cambodian Hmong refugees in the
United States. In the disorder, apparently healthy males died in their sleep without
warning. Victims made gurgling noises, thrashed about in bed, and rapidly died.
Although no clear cause could be found, one explanation suggests that an
inherited heart defect put potential victims at risk. When stress was high--- due to the
pressure of multiple jobs, family arguments, academic concerns, or other factors--extremely vivid unpleasant dreams may have triggered the inherited flaw and led to
death. For instance, not long before they died some victims reported dreams
foretelling their deaths. Because the Hmong place great credence in their dreams,
dreams foretelling death could have produced extremely high levels of stress--leading to the fatal consequence (Adler, 1995; Lane et al., 2005).

Vocabularies:
immune system : the system of organs, glands, and cells that make up the bodys
defense against disease.
psychosomatic disorders : medical problems caused by the interaction of
psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties.

Text taken from:

Feldman, R. S. (2008). Chapter 14: Stress, Coping, and Well-Being. Adolescence
(pp.
455 & 456). New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, Inc.