Sensation-seeking motivation and social-support moderators of the life stress/illness relationship: some contradictory and confirmatory evidence

The present study examined the relationship between measures of life change and reported physical and psychological symptoms as a function of the person's degree of sensation-seeking motivation (SSM) and of social support. A sample of firefighters was tested and showed that, contrary to previous reports, those relatively high in SSM showed a significantly stronger relationship between life change and illness than did those relatively low in SSM. Social support, however, did act to reduce the relationship between change and illness, in line with the evidence from previous investigations.