Stress in context: Social determinants, coping, and policy implications in a quota-matched Austrian sample

Stress is a near-universal experience with profound health implications, yet population-level data on its prevalence and effective coping strategies remain limited. This preregistered study examined the prevalence of stress, coping behaviours, and their associations with well-being in a quota-matched sample (N = 1099) from Austria, a high-income country with a robust social safety net. Using validated scales alongside novel stress and coping inventories, we found that 7.3% of participants reported extreme stress, with self-imposed pressure, commuting, and constant availability emerging as dominant stressors. Higher perceived support availability was associated with higher well-being but did not moderate the stress-well-being relationship. Self-selected coping (e.g., gardening, yoga) was associated with a weaker cross-sectional relationship between stress and well-being. Women reported higher stress than men descriptively, though this did not hold in covariate-adjusted models. Results suggest that in high-resource contexts, structural supports and individualized coping tools may play complementary roles.