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Updated: Dec 10, 2025

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Life Change, Social Identity, and Health
Catherine Haslam1, S Alexander Haslam1, Jolanda Jetten1
1School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia QLD 4072, Australia;
Abstract:
Life change affects health. Research aimed at understanding the consequences of life change has primarily focused on the important roles played by stress, social support, individual differences, and broader socioeconomic factors in shaping health outcomes, most notably mental health decline. In this review we extend these accounts by exploring social identity-based determinants of adjustment to life change. We do so by drawing on social identity theorizing and, in particular, the Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC). This points to the importance of multiple, maintained, new, and compatible group memberships as determinants of people's responses and adjustment to life change. We apply this model to understand the health consequences of adjustment to life change in four diverse areas: pursuit of higher education, migration, trauma and resilience, and recovery from illness and injury. Finally, we provide direction for future research on SIMIC and the health consequences of life change.
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