On November 9th, the American Psychological Association released the findings from their Stress in America Survey. The results are in many ways similar to the results of a year ago. Americans are clearly continuing to feel the effects of prolonged financial and other recession-related problems. Americans recognize that their stress levels remain high and exceed what they consider to be healthy. Adults, in particular, understand the importance of healthy behaviors but simply feel that they do not have the time to practice these behaviors and they often lack the motivation and energy to do so.There are a couple of interesting differences in the results this year. Fewer adults report being satisfied with the way that their employer helps employees balance work and non-work demands and in general there is a great deal of concern about job stability.
Another interesting result is that stress seems to be taking a physical health toll on children. This has to do specifically with weight. Children and adults alike who are obese or overweight are more likely to feel stress, and overweight children are more likely to report that their parents were often or always stressed over the past month. Children who are overweight are more likely to report they worry a lot or a great deal about things in their lives than children who are normal weight. Overweight kids also are more significantly likely than normal weight children to report that they worry about the way they look and their weight. While the majority of parents don’t think their children are strongly affected by their stress, children clearly report otherwise.
For more information about the results of the APA survey, go to www.apahelpcenter.org.
Ron Breazeale, Ph.D.
Author, Duct Tape Isn’t Enough
www.reachinghome.com
Photo by Andrew Quilty
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