Chronic Stress, Change in Social Support, and Uncertainty

随着我们对压力和社会心理学的了解越来越多， 影响它的因素，越来越清楚，这些 因素是复杂的，暴露于压力的持续时间是 在决定结果方面也很重要。 我们知道很多 关于急性实验室压力， 在真实的世界中产生的持久压力。 大多数人 经历反复发作的压力过程中， 日常生活中，这些经验的影响可能是 重要. 有些人会经历更持久的长期， 由于某种特殊情况（如疾病）而产生的压力 一个孩子。 本研究将探讨后一种情况，其中 或多或少连续地经历相当大的应力。 的 社会支持的方式和变化的感知社会 支持影响压力的经验，由于一个孩子的 威胁生命的疾病也将被研究， 的不确定性。 为了做到这一点，一个样本的父母的孩子谁是 严重疾病（肿瘤疾病）将与样本进行比较 孩子健康的父母。 在接下来的一年里， 一半，每个父母将在两个月内进行九次研究 的间隔 在每一次会议上，一些心理和 将收集生理测量结果， 关于孩子的健康，症状报告，感知压力， 社会支持，不确定性，血压，免疫状态， 荷尔蒙活动 每一个孩子的病情变化， 记录并用于帮助跟踪父母反应的变化。 这项研究的完成将提供一个更完整的 人们如何应对慢性压力以及社会 支持会影响这种反应。 此外， 将评估不确定性的心理生理相关因素 以及不确定性在压力和社会支持效应中的作用 将得到澄清。

As we learn more about stress and the social psychological factors that affect it, it becomes increasingly clear that these factors are complex and that duration of exposure to stress is also important in determining outcomes. We know a great deal about acute laboratory stress but relatively little about longer lasting stress occurring in the real world. Most people experience repeated episodes of stress during the course of everyday life, and the effects of these experiences may be important. Some people experience more constant long-term, stress as a result of a particular condition such as the illness of a child. This research will explore the latter case, where substantial stress is experienced more or less continuously. The ways in which social support and changes in the perceived social support affect the experience of stress due to one's child's life-threatening illness will also be studied, as will the role of uncertainty. In order to do this, a sample of parents of children who are seriously ill (neoplastic disease) will be compared with a sample of parents whose children are healthy. Over the next year-and-a- half, each parent will be studied nine times at two month intervals. During each session, several psychological and physiological measures will be collected including information about the child's health, symptom reporting, perceived stress, social support, uncertainty, blood pressure, immune status, and hormonal activity. Changes in each child's condition will be noted and used to help track changes in parents' response. Completion of this research should provide a more complete picture of how people respond to chronic stress and how social support affects this response. In addition, the possibility of psychophysiological correlates of uncertainty will be evaluated and the role of uncertainty in stress and social support effects will be clarified.