title: Perceptions of stressful life events as turning points are associated with self-rated health and psychological distress.
abstract: We test the hypothesis that changes in physical and psychological health are associated with construals of stressful life events. At two points in time, approximately 10 years apart, participants (n=1038) rated their physical health and psychological distress. At the second assessment, participants also reported their most stressful life event since the first assessment and indicated whether they considered the event a turning point and/or lesson learned. Lower self-ratings of health and higher ratings of psychological distress, controlling for baseline health and distress, and relevant demographic factors, were associated with perceiving the stressful life event as a turning point, particularly a negative turning point. The two health measures were primarily unrelated to lessons learned. How individuals construe the most stressful events in their lives are associated with changes in self-rated health and distress.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA. sutina@mail.nih.gov
authors.forename: Angelina R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Sutin
authors.forename: Paul T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wethington
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Eaton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015142:Baltimore; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D057566:Self Report; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*