Financial Stress In Early Adulthood Is Related To Physical Pain Decades Later

By Emily Reynolds Pain is not a purely biological phenomenon: discrimination, anxiety around work, and general mental strain have all been shown to contribute to the experience of chronic pain. Many researchers therefore take a biopsychosocial approach, exploring the multifarious factors that impact on and are impacted by pain. A new study in Stress & Health explores the long term consequences of social factors on pain. The team, from the universities of Georgia and South California, Los Angeles, specifically focus on families involved in the 1980s “farm crisis” in the US Midwest, a period where many lost their jobs, land value crashed, and businesses failed — and finds that this financial stress is related to the experience of pain nearly 30 years later. Data was taken from a longitudinal study, which took place over 27 years and involved 508 married couples, who were all in early midlife at the start of the study in 1991. The team tracked a number of measures for the study. A four-item scale measured family financial strain in 1991, 1994 and 2001, and participants also answered items related to financial stress (e.g. “we have enough money to afford the kind of clothing we need”) at the same points. Sense of control was measured ten years apart, in 1991 and 2001, with participants indicating how much they agreed with statements such as “sometimes I feel that I am being pushed around in life”. Pain was assessed at two points later on in t...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Health Money Source Type: blogs