Perceptions of stressful life events as turning points are associated with self-rated health and psychological distress |
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| Authors: | Angelina R Sutin Paul T Costa Jr Elaine Wethington William Eaton |
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| Institution: | 1. Laboratory of Personality and Cognition , National Institute on Aging, NIH , Baltimore, MD, USA sutina@mail.nih.gov;3. Laboratory of Personality and Cognition , National Institute on Aging, NIH , Baltimore, MD, USA;4. Department of Human Development and Sociology , Cornell University , Ithaca, NY, USA;5. Bloomberg School of Public Health , Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore, MD, USA |
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| Abstract: | Abstract We test the hypothesis that changes in physical and psychological health are associated with construals of stressful life events. At two points in time, approximately 10 years apart, participants (n=1038) rated their physical health and psychological distress. At the second assessment, participants also reported their most stressful life event since the first assessment and indicated whether they considered the event a turning point and/or lesson learned. Lower self-ratings of health and higher ratings of psychological distress, controlling for baseline health and distress, and relevant demographic factors, were associated with perceiving the stressful life event as a turning point, particularly a negative turning point. The two health measures were primarily unrelated to lessons learned. How individuals construe the most stressful events in their lives are associated with changes in self-rated health and distress. |
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| Keywords: | turning points lesson learned life story physical health psychological distress stressful life event |
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