Definition
Stressful life events, or life event stressors, are undesirable, unscheduled, nonnormative, and/or uncontrollable discrete, observable events with a generally clear onset and offset that usually signify major life changes. Stressful life events have significant negative consequences for both physical and psychological well-being.
Description
Broadly defined, stressors are events or conditions that threaten the operating integrity of an organism (Wheaton and Montazer 2010). The concepts of stress and stressor were first introduced by Hans Selye (1956) whose experiments indicated that repeated and prolonged exposure to noxious conditions and stimuli increased susceptibility to disease and illness in laboratory animals. Following Selye’s research, early studies in the 1960s on stress in humans focused on the negative effects of life events on well-being....
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Carlson, D. (2023). Stressful Life Events. In: Maggino, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17299-1_2880
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17299-1_2880
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