APA Report on Stress In America

The American Psychological Association (APA) recently released their annual report from their Stress in America survey. The survey is designed to measure perceptions and attitudes about stress. It also looks at how people manage stress and the impact that it has on their lives. According to the results, not only are we more stressed out than we even realize, many of us are not coping with this stress effectively.

Among the key findings of the stress survey:

• One-third of parents reported that their stress level were extreme, ranking it at an 8 to 10 on a 10-point stress scale.
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• While 69 percent of participants said that managing stress was either very or extremely important, only 32 percent felt that they were doing an adequate job of controlling their stress levels.
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• More than two-thirds of parents reported that their stress has little or no impact on their children. However, only 14 percent of children said that their parents stress didn't affect them, indicating that perhaps parents are unaware of the negative impact their own stress levels has on the rest of the family.

"Year after year nearly three-quarters of Americans say they experience stress at levels that exceed what they define as healthy, putting themselves at risk for developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and depression," said psychologist and APA executive vice president Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D. in a press release. "Stress is hurting our physical and emotional health and contributing to some of the leading causes of death in this country. People are also saying they have difficulty implementing the changes they know will decrease their stress and improve their health. Yet, our health care system is not adequately addressing this issue or providing the behavioral health treatments that can help Americans. All of us, including the medical community, need to take stress seriously since stress could easily become our next public health crisis."

Learn more about the findings of the Stress in America survey, and check out some resources designed to help you understand and cope with stress.

• Stress Relief for Children and Parents
• Is Your Stress Level Unhealthy?
• Frequently Asked Questions About Stress

_{Source: www.stressinamerica.org}