Perceived Stress: Why Coping Strategies and Social Support Structures Matter

Marty B. Galvan

Wayland Baptist University

A human being’s emotional experience with stress can vary greatly from one situation to

another based-on factors like workload and pay, social support, access to basic needs and the

perceived safety of their environment. Even if someone has experienced high levels of stress in

their past, these experiences can still alter their development in their future. No one can control

the environment they were born into and while in some situations they can learn coping

strategies, the resources for such a thing are often hard to come by.

Rather than being a luxury as some would incorrectly assume, toxic levels of perceived

stress are a public health issue that needs to be addressed both by the individual through

developing resilience and through community support for those who are already struggling. In

this paper I will first explore a variety of groups experiencing high levels of perceived stress,

learn how perceived stress negatively impacts health among these groups and finally make an

argument for why everyone who experiences perceived stress should seek to adopt appropriate

coping strategies and must be provided with support from their community in doing so.

Perceived stress can be understood as an individual’s perception of the stressfulness of

their own situation. In M. E Lopez’s 2018 report titled “In Danger at the Border: Parents are

Children’s Best Tools Against Toxic Stress” the author explains one of the most severe examples

of the negative impact of stress on the human body: it’s effect on the cognitive and emotional

development of young children. Lopez (2018) explains that children who experience Adverse

Childhood Experiences (ACE) suffer devastating effects that may be long-term even with

intervention. In her report Lopez focuses on the children of El Salvadoran refugees who have

been traumatically separated from their parents by the state. The constant stress these refugee

children are under can cause alterations in their cognitive development and hormone

immunological responses (Lopez 2018). Lopez (2018) further explains the science of this “toxic

Author Note: This paper was written for EXSS 2306 Foundations of Health and Wellness taught
by Professor Reynaldo D. Rodriguez
 3

stress” based alternation in cognitive development among these displaced children in the

following statement:

“As the neural connections governing stress response are reinforced through frequent

usage for children who experience ongoing stress and violence, fight-or-flight responses

become the predominant pathways the brain uses to assess situations”.

Lopez (2018) concludes that this alteration in neural pathways to react to all situations

with the fight or flight response is a result of exposure to “toxic stress”. With this example it is

easy to see that the most marginalized groups in society are the ones most likely to be subjected

to these high levels of stress early on. Lopez (2018) also notes that these children often have

caregivers with the same psychological trauma and stress, perpetuating a negative cycle that can

impact not only individuals but potentially generations of people.

Another group that is exposed to high levels of toxic stress are the homeless population.

Durbin et al. (2019) conducted a study on the concepts of perceived stress vs. resilience while

providing a group of homeless people with a 24-month trial of the Housing First Program which

provided housing for the duration and also provided other support services like access to mental

health, job programs and addiction recovery resources (Durbin 2019). The intent of the study

was to see if the negative health outcomes of stress and psychological trauma associated with

being homeless could be diminished by building up resilience and reducing the amount of stress.

According to Durbin et al. “Perceiving events as stressful can contribute to allostatic

overload, known as the wear and tear on the body and brain that results from feeling stress”

(2019). Resilience can be defined as the ability to perceive events as less stressful and adapt

more easily to changes (Durbin 2018). Resilience can provide a buffer from the negative effects

Author Note: This paper was written for EXSS 2306 Foundations of Health and Wellness taught
by Professor Reynaldo D. Rodriguez
 4

of stress on health which is especially relevant to the homeless population as they are exposed to

high levels of stress on a constant basis due to their living situation and most have already

experienced psychological trauma in the past or have other psychological comorbidities that add

to their stress. Resilience develops as an individual builds self esteem and learns to adopt non-

evasive coping strategies to deal with changes in their life. In conclusion, the study did find that

providing support and gradually developing resilience led to better health outcomes and reduced

stress for the homeless people in the program (Durbin 2019) The big takeaway is that when it

comes to marginalized groups with a great need their basic needs must be met first and they must

feel safe in their environment before healing from stress can truly progress.

Stress is not limited only to the most extreme traumatic examples. A person still can

encounter high levels of stress in their day-to-day life as they are burdened by the responsibilities

and challenges that come with aging. In his report “Feeling Younger as a Stress Buffer:

Subjective Age Moderates the Effect of Perceived Stress on Change in Functional Health”

authors Wettstein et. al. (2021) stated that “Stress is an established risk factor for multiple

outcomes of health and functioning… including cognitive abilities…sensory functioning…,

health symptoms…and mortality…” (2021). It is clear that there is evidence that points to stress

as a serious condition associated with aging. After establishing the need the report sought to

explore whether a person’s perceived age has an impact on stress. Wettstein (2021) defined

perceived age as a person’s mental idea of their own age rather than their actual age. The report

did find that to a certain extent feeling younger was associated with less negative health

outcomes caused by stress (2021). This reinforces the concept of resilience but this time

resilience of the self. By building up a different self-perception one can impact stress and thus

impact physical health.

Author Note: This paper was written for EXSS 2306 Foundations of Health and Wellness taught
by Professor Reynaldo D. Rodriguez
 5

Occupational stress is another hazard most working-class people are likely to face. A

capitalist society demands that the worker comply with large physical, mental, and emotional

demands often for low pay and minimal benefits. Combine this with the financial burdens of

having a family or even unexpected expenses and you get a recipe for strain and burnout. In the

course of their study German Sport University et. al. (2020) found that evasive coping strategies

such as excessive drinking, venting, or avoiding the emotions caused an increase in stress while

coping strategies such as reframing (changing the perception of increased stress), finding humor

in a bad situation or focusing on problem-solving seemed to decrease stress.

The strong positive and negative relationships in this data indicate the vital importance of

which coping strategies are applied- healthy or unhealthy ones (German Sport University 2020).

The study used measures such as emotional skills (defined as resilience, regulation, and

acceptance), coping strategies and perceived stress. A lot of the study’s focus was on teacher

interactions with students. Especially for older generations, emotional skills and coping

strategies were not focused on and barely taught. This leaves a lot of people with a huge blind

spot, but it is especially important for childcare professionals to learn these skills themselves and

teach them to future generations.

This overview of available data has made it clear that from the most marginalized

individuals to every day working class people all over the world, stress continues to be a health

hazard that deserves more recognition. The data has also shown us what measures, including

resilience, coping strategies and above all, support from the community is necessary to help

combat perceived stress and its impact on mental, physical and emotional health.

Author Note: This paper was written for EXSS 2306 Foundations of Health and Wellness taught
by Professor Reynaldo D. Rodriguez
 6

Works Cited
Durbin, A., Nisenbaum, R., Kopp, B., O’Campo, P., Hwang, S. W., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2019).

Are resilience and perceived stress related to social support and housing stability among

homeless adults with mental illness? Health & Social Care in the Community, 27(4),

1053–1062. https://doi-org.waylandbu.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/hsc.12722

German Sport University, Pels, F., & Kleinert, J. (2020). Coping strategies as mediators within

the relationship between emotion-regulation and perceived stress in teachers.

International Journal of Emotional Education, 12(1), 35–44. https://www.um.edu.mt/ijee

Lopez, M. E. (2018). In Danger at the Border: Parents Are Children’s Best Tool against Toxic

Stress. ZERO TO THREE, 39(1), 22–25. https://eric.ed.gov/?redir=https%3a%2f

%2fwww.zerotothree.org%2fresources%2fseries%2fjournal-archive

Wettstein, M., Spuling, S. M., Cengia, A., & Nowossadeck, S. (2021). Feeling younger as a

stress buffer: Subjective age moderates the effect of perceived stress on change in

functional health. Psychology and Aging, 36(3), 322–337. https://doi-

org.waylandbu.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/pag0000608

Author Note: This paper was written for EXSS 2306 Foundations of Health and Wellness taught
by Professor Reynaldo D. Rodriguez