Control, desirability, and anticipation as moderating variables between life change and illness

A growing body of literature supports a relationship between life change events and illness. The present study is an investigation of cognitive processes which moderate the life change-illness relationship. The moderator variables chosen for this study were perceived control, desirability, and anticipation of life change events. One hundred and twenty-six subjects (65 males, 61 females) reported illness using the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale, and life change events using the Schedule of Recent Experiences, adapted to collect data on the moderator variables. Correlation coefficients were computed for all conditions reflecting the presence of positive and negative moderator variables. Each of the negative moderator variables was related to significant changes (p less than .05 and p less than .01) in the strength of the life change-illness relationship, with perceived control emerging as a variable with the greatest impact in all cases. Two unexpected findings emerged: (1) The relationship between life change and illness was much stronger for females than for males in all comparisons, and (2) for females only, desirable events were positively related to illness. The evidence of this study supports the contention that stress management strategies should include considerations of cognitive variables which moderate the life change-illness relationship.