If stress can have harmful consequences on health, talking about it would be beneficial. Indeed, according to a new study, sharing stress would strengthen social ties between individuals.
Insomnia, anxiety, depression, hypertension… Here are, among others, the well-known effects that the stress can have on health. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University (USA) and Yonsei University (South Korea) have tried to find out if we can get anything positive out of stress. According to their study, published in the journal Stress and Healthundergoing a stressful event can be beneficial from the point of view social and emotionalespecially when the person concerned talks about it to others in order to get support.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers analyzed questionnaires completed by 1,622 participants, all between the ages of 33 and 84. For 8 consecutive days, these people had to indicate, in the evening, if they had experienced any particular stress during the day and if they had interacted with someone in order to manage the situation.
Receive support and give it back
Based on the responses received, participants who reported stressful situations were twice as likely to receive support from those around them, such as colleagues, friends or family members. They were also more likely to reciprocate those same people. This trend appears to be continuing as 26% of participants said they still felt this mutual support the next day.
Thus, the lead author of the study, David M. Almeida (human development professor of family studies at Pennsylvania State University), believes that intervening on the social interaction rather than on the individual could be beneficial in managing stress. “If stress can actually connect us with other people, which is absolutely vital to the human experience, I think that’s an advantage. Stress could potentially help people deal with negative situations by pushing them to be with other people”concludes the scientist.
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