Life stress, social support, and psychological vulnerability: epidemiological considerations

Previous research indicates that relatively disadvantaged sociodemographic groups (women, the poor, the unmarried) are more vulnerable to the impacts of life events. More recently, researchers have hypothesized that the psychological vulnerability of these groups may be due to the joint occurrence of many stress events and few psychological resources with which to cope with such events. This latter hypothesis is called here the applied buffering hypothesis. Using data from the New Haven Community Survey, the existence of differential psychological vulnerability is first reconfirmed. Women; older adults; unmarried persons; those with less education, income, and occupational prestige; married women; and unmarried women are found significantly more distressed by the experience of life events than their sociodemographic counterparts. The applied buffering hypothesis is then tested with several measures of social support. Little support for the hypothesis is found. That is, the psychological vulnerability of low status groups cannot be explained by the interaction of many events and few available sources of social support. Limitations of the data and alternative explanations of these findings are discussed. The confirmation of psychological vulnerability in disadvantaged groups suggests new directions for future epidemiological research.