Are Education and Stress Linked?

May 10, 2004 -- Every briefcase-toting businessman and commuting career woman knows about daily stress from the ringing phones and crowded freeways that shape their lives.

So do people with less education, such as high school dropouts, report less day-to-day stress? Apparently so, finds a new study.

But the less educated don't get off the hook, say researchers. They suffer stress events more severely, to the point that it affects their health.

In a study just published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, researchers surveyed 1,031 adults for a period of eight consecutive days about stressful events occurring each day. The responses were then ranked by severity.

Researchers found those with a college degree reported feelings of stress almost half the time, or 44 percent of the days tracked.

By contrast, those with a high school degree or some college reported feeling stressed 38 percent of the days. And for those without a high school degree, stress was reported on just 30 percent of the days.

Severe Health Effects

But despite their having the lowest number of stressful days, the group without a high school degree had stressful experiences that were more severe, so much so that it affected their physical and mental health. Negative health effects included nausea, headaches, chest pain and fever.

"Less advantaged people are less healthy on a daily basis and are more likely to have downward turns in their health," said Joseph G. Grzywacz, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and co-author of the study.

"The downward turns in health were connected with daily stressors, and the effect of daily stressors on their health is much more devastating for the less advantaged," Grzywacz added.

Though other studies have shown how stress affects health, they have typically focused on chronic stressors like a major illness or the loss of a loved one. None have examined the stress that occurs from everyday experiences and hassles.