A REEXAMINATION OF THE STRESS ILLNESS RELATIONSHIP - HOW USEFUL IS THE CONCEPT OF STRESS

Relationships among major life events, hassles, neuroticism and report ed somatic symptoms were examined using a sample of 131 people. Princi pal components analysis of the Hassles questionnaire revealed four fac tors. One of these, concerns about money, did not correlate significan tly with any of the other variables. A LISREL model incorporating the remaining variables suggested that neuroticism and life events contrib ute differentially to the three hassles factors, which in turn are rel ated to somatic symptoms. It was argued that the hassles factor most s trongly predictive of somatic symptoms, concerns about health, was mor e likely to be a consequence than a cause of ill-health. It was conclu ded that minor stressors fall into a number of different classes, whic h have different causes and different effects. This casts doubt on the concept of stress as a unitary phenomenon.