Conceptualizing stress to study effects on health: Environmental, perceptual, and emotional components

Abstract

Stress has been operationalized in numerous ways across studies of physical and mental health, raising questions about the appropriate definition of stress and the construct validity of stress measures. The present paper discusses the theoretical and operational strengths of three prominent approaches to stress definition and then attempts to integrate them into a comprehensive and robust multidimensional definition of stress. In a study of socioeconomically disadvantaged pregnant women, structural equation modelling techniques were used to test whether a single latent construct underlies environmental, perceptual, and response-based indicators of stress. Results suggested a two-factor, rather than a single-factor, model of stress. Stress perception and emotion were part of a single underlying latent factor, a phenomenological stress construct, whereas environmental conditions in the form of major life events represented a second and distinct component of stress. Failure to find a single latent stress construct is interpreted as evidence for the importance of individual perception or appraisal as a mediator of response to difficult environmental conditions. The findings suggest that multidimensional models of stress are theoretically justified and that enhancement of stress measurement in this manner may enable researchers to better identify health effects of stress.