DAVIS, Calif. - The clouds of life's most trying and traumatic times - divorce,
job loss, grief - may have more of a silver lining than previously thought
by psychologists, according to three studies being published this month
by a University of California, Davis, researcher and her colleagues.
For years, stressful life events generally have been considered damaging,
both physically and emotionally. Yet the majority of the 2,000 people involved
in the new studies said they learned from their lowest moments, and could
point to advantages gained through their pain, says Carolyn Aldwin, a professor
in the UC Davis human and community development department.
Along with a graduate student and a Brandeis University professor, Aldwin
conducted the research being published in the Journal of Personality.
The three studies are the first to show quantitatively, and in an "ordinary"
population, the positive effects of stress, and how people draw upon past
experiences to deal with current problems, Aldwin says. Most previous studies
have shown anecdotally that in three "coping" research areas -
illness, bereavement and trauma - people perceived positive benefits from
undergoing extremely stressful events.
Aldwin notes that the three studies are preliminary, and that longitudinal
studies are needed to learn more about the causes of people's coping responses.
Data collection for the studies was supported by the National Institute
on Aging, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, Hatch Funds
and a UC Davis New Faculty Research Grant.
The researchers studied 2,000 people in all, including older men who participated
in an ongoing study of aging, men and women participating in a health and
personality styles study, and college graduates aged 23 to 62. Study participants
responded to questionnaires and to in-person interviews. Interestingly,
Aldwin says, the results from the three studies of very different groups
of people were nearly identical.
"Regardless of their age, gender or whether they lived on the East
Coast or the West Coast, the vast majority of people could see something
positive out of the worst moments of their lives: only 20 percent saw low
points as exclusively negative," Aldwin says.
"This shows hope. People learn so much about their strengths, their
friendships, resources they have, through stressful life events. Sometimes,
it's spirituality that emerges. We've lost sight of the fact that stress
is not always bad."
Aldwin's work provides a more balanced picture of the effects of stress
than that depicted by many scholars over the years, says Glen Elder, a professor
of life course studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Elder has studied the life experiences of Depression-era children and of
World War II veterans.
"Bad events do not merely have bad effects. They may also have growth
outcomes, such as when a combat veteran develops resilient qualities and
learns to hold his job by managing war-generated symptoms," Elder says.
"Aldwin's work helps us to avoid biases by considering both outcomes."
The studies by Aldwin and co-authors Karen Sutton, a UC Davis graduate student,
and Margie Lachman, a Brandeis University professor, included several key
findings:
· People perceive continuity across stressful situations. More than
80 percent of those studied said they drew upon a prior experience to help
them cope with a current problem;
· The overwhelming majority of those who said they had experienced
serious low points in their lives perceived long-term effects from having
had those difficulties, yet "what was so surprising was that so few
saw the effects as primarily negative," the authors write;
· More than 95 percent of those questioned said they had learned
something from their experiences, and the majority said they could turn
what were often terrible life episodes to their own advantage; and
· People who were able to derive advantages from their low points
reported higher mastery levels and lower levels of depressive symptoms.
Few age differences surfaced in the kinds of resources used to cope or in
the long-term outcomes, a finding that surprised the researchers. The studies
pointed out that people who perceived primarily negative long-term effects
were less likely to draw on a resource, to turn the situation to their advantage
and to take action - and were more likely to try to escape from the problem.
On the other hand, people who saw positive or mixed long-term effects were
more likely to draw upon their experiences, personality and religion as
resources to cope, and were more likely to take decisive action to cope
and could turn the situation to their advantage.
"What was remarkable is the degree to which people struggled to learn
and grow in the midst of despair, and the degree to which they perceived
their own personalities as malleable. . . .We suspect that mental health
lies in the ability to perceive and activate resources, both internal and
external, when faced with challenging problems. While some people clearly
have more tangible resources which help them to cope with problems, people
appeared to vary in their ability to perceive resources and advantages in
stressful situations," Aldwin said.
According to Aldwin, the source of this difference is unclear, "although
it is likely to correspond to factors contributing to resiliency in children,
namely, intelligence, 'easy' dispositions, and social support" (qualities
identified in a 1992 study by well-known resiliency researcher, Emmy Werner,
also a UC Davis professor of human development).
Aldwin is the author of "Stress, Coping, and Development: An Integrative
Perspective" 1994 (Guilford Press). Her previous studies have focused
on aging and on the coping experiences of war veterans experiencing post-traumatic
stress disorder, among other research areas.