title: Exposure to stressors and trajectories of perceived stress among older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Models of stress incorporate both the environmental demands experienced by individuals (stressors) and the appraisal of these life events (perceptions). Because little is known about the extent to which experience and perceptions are related, we examine this relationship in a nationally representative population of older Taiwanese adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using growth models applied to data from 3 waves (1999, 2003, and 2007) of the Taiwan Longitudinal Study of Aging, we (a) investigate patterns of change in perceived stress in later adulthood and (b) examine how experienced stressors influence perceived stress. Participants were asked to report the presence of, and in some cases the degree of, exposure to stressors including total number of medical conditions, difficulty with activities of daily living, difficulty with mobility functions, being financially worse off compared with the prior wave, experiencing the death of a child, and experiencing a marital disruption. Items reflecting perceived stress included concerns about various domains pertaining to the respondent and his/her family member.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results indicate that exposure to stressors increases, whereas perceived stress decreases, over time. Change in exposure to stressors is not generally associated with change in perceptions of stress, with the exception of a summary measure of health-related exposure to stressors. An increase in poor health over time is related to an increase in perceived stress in all domains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results underscore the importance of distinguishing between perceptions of stress and exposure to stressors when studying the links between stress and health among older adults. Furthermore, the diminishing linkage between experienced stressors and perceptions of stress suggests that older adults' appraisal may be an adaptive coping strategy that emerges to buffer some of the difficulties that are inevitable in later life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. svasunil@bidmc.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Sarinnapha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vasunilashorn
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Scott M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.affiliation: Center for Population and Health, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia.
authors.forename: Dana A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Glei
authors.affiliation: Center for Population and Health, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia.
authors.forename: Maxine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weinstein
authors.affiliation: Office of Population Research, Princeton University , New Jersey.
authors.forename: Noreen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goldman
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D051346:Mobility Limitation; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013624:Taiwan
keywords: Health; Perceived stress; Stress trajectories.; Stressors