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Social—Environmental Influences on the Chronic Stress Process

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Coping with Chronic Stress

Part of the book series: The Springer Series on Stress and Coping ((SSSO))

Abstract

The social environment can facilitate or hamper one’s ability to cope with chronic stressors, but it can also be a direct source of chronic stress. This chapter examines three ways in which the social environment is implicated in chronic stress processes. First, it describes the variety of social sources of chronic stress. Second, it shows how the social environment can moderate, or alter, the impact of chronic stressors by mitigating or exacerbating people’s responses to them. Finally, it illustrates how enduring and undesirable changes in the social environment, which often result from stressful life events, can mediate, or explain, the effects of major life events on health and well-being.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213-3890, USA

    Stephen J. Lepore

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  1. Stephen J. Lepore
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, N1G 2W1, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Benjamin H. Gottlieb

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Lepore, S.J. (1997). Social—Environmental Influences on the Chronic Stress Process. In: Gottlieb, B.H. (eds) Coping with Chronic Stress. The Springer Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9862-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9862-3_5

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