Life events and minor stressors: Their relationship with somatic symptoms and disease

This article examines (a) relationship between frequency of life events and daily stress (hassles and uplifts), (b) correlations among perceived life events stress and hassles and uplifts, (c) effectiveness of life events stress for prediction of follow-up somatic symptoms, (d) effectiveness of daily stress in concurrent prediction of physical symptoms, and (e) predictive power of independent vs. dependent life events on disease. One hundred and twenty-four undergraduates responded to retrospective measures of life events and disease, and to prospective day-to-day measures of hassles, uplifts and somatic symptoms. Results suggest (a) significant positive correlations between life events and hassles, (b) while both daily stress and life events emerge as significant predictors of somatic complaints, hassles were the better predictor, (c) independent life events appear to be an acceptable predictor of disease, being dependent events more related with illness. Taken together, these findings support the use of hassles and life events as valid measures of stress. Future use of life events dimensions for research on health related outcomes are suggested.