(Under $50K n=719; ≥$50K n=665); 2010 (Under $50K n=569;
≥$50K n=438); 2011 (Under $50K n=598; ≥$50K n=527); 2012
(Under $50K n=926; ≥$50K n=981); 2013 (Under $50K n=990;
≥$50K n=795); 2014 (Under $50K n=1499; ≥$50K n=1379)
Q605 On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means you have “little or no stress” and
10 means you have “a great deal of stress,” how would you rate your average
level of stress during the past month?
TO SAY LACK OF MONEY
PREVENTS THEM FROM
LIVING A HEALTHY
LIFESTYLE THAN THOSE
IN HIGHER-INCOME
HOUSEHOLDS
THOSE IN LOWER-INCOME
HOUSEHOLDS ARE ALMOST
TWICE AS LIKELY
page 5
PAYING WITH OUR HEALTH
WWW.STRESSINAMERICA.ORG
Those living in lower-income households who also say they
have extreme stress about money are more than twice as
likely as those living in lower-income households with low
stress about money to rate their health as fair or poor (44
percent vs. 17 percent).
A STRESSFUL REALITY FOR PARENTS
AND YOUNGER GENERATIONS
The impact of stress about money appears to be worse
among those who also report higher levels of overall stress
— younger generations (Millennials and Gen Xers) and
parents of children under the age of 18.
14
Overall, younger generations and parents rate their stress
higher than Americans overall:
•
Parents say their overall stress is a 5.7 on a 10-point scale
and more than one-third (34 percent) say that their
overall stress has increased in the past year. Parents also
report higher levels of stress about money compared to
non-parents (5.8 vs. 4.4 on a 10-point scale).
15
•
Millennials and Gen Xers report comparable levels
of overall stress — 5.5 and 5.4 on a 10-point scale,
respectively — and in both groups, more than one-
quarter say their overall stress has increased in the past
year (36 percent of Millennials and 30 percent of Gen
Xers).
•
Millennials and Gen Xers report higher levels of
stress about money compared to Americans overall
(Millennials: 5.4 on a 10-point scale; Gen Xers: 5.5; all
adults: 4.7).
Younger generations and parents are also more likely
than other Americans to point to financial concerns as
sources of stress.
Money is a somewhat or very significant source of stress for
the majority of Americans (64 percent) but even more so for
parents (77 percent), Millennials (75 percent) and Gen Xers
(76 percent).
Parents and younger generations are less likely than
Americans overall to report being financially secure (parents:
5.0 on a 10-point scale, where 1 means “not at all financially
secure” and 10 means “completely financially secure;”
Millennials: 4.8; Gen Xers: 4.8; all adults: 5.5).
More than half of parents (58 percent) and Millennials (57
percent) say that paying for essentials is a somewhat or very
significant source of stress, compared with 44 percent of
Americans overall reporting the same.
The majority of parents (71 percent) and Gen Xers (70
percent) say they have “just enough” or not enough money
to make ends meet at the end of the month.
14
The four generations are defined as the following: Millennials (18- to 35-year-olds), Gen Xers (36- to 49-year-olds), Boomers (50- to 68-year-olds) and Matures (69 years and older).
15
“Non-parents” signify those who do not have a child under 18 living at home.
<
STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
AMONG LOWER-INCOME AMERICANS
Those living in lower-income households with extreme
stress about money are more likely to report sedentary
or unhealthy behaviors than those in lower-income
households with low stress about money
BASE: ALL QUALIFIED RESPONDENTS (n=3068); Respondents with income under $50K
and high stress about money (n=460); Respondents with income under $50K and low
stress about money (n=496)
Q965 Do you do any of the following to manage stress?
All Americans
Under $50K with extreme money stress
Under $50K with low money stress
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Watch television/
movies for more than
2 hours per day
Surf the Internet
Nap/sleep
Eat
Drink alcohol
Smoke
55%
40%
38%
27%
23%
14%
12%
42%
38%
20%
25%
34%
27%
20%
15%
7%
6%
58%
page 6
WWW.STRESSINAMERICA.ORG
Roughly half of parents (48 percent) and Gen Xers (47
percent) say paying for out-of-pocket health care costs is
a somewhat or very significant source of stress, compared
to 38 percent of all Americans. For those who have out-of-
pocket health care costs, more than one-quarter of parents
(28 percent) and Gen Xers (27 percent) say they had difficulty
paying for these costs in the past year.
For many parents and younger generations, finances
and stress about money are barriers to living a healthy
lifestyle.
Nearly half (45 percent) of parents, 43 percent of Millennials
and 41 percent of Gen Xers say that their financial situation or
lack of money prevents them from living a healthy lifestyle,
compared to 32 percent of all Americans saying the same.
Parents who say their stress about money is extreme (8, 9 or
10 on a 10-point scale) are more likely than parents with low
stress about money (1, 2 or 3 on a 10-point scale) to report
engaging in sedentary or unhealthy behaviors to manage
their stress, such as watching television/movies for more
than two hours per day (46 percent vs. 28 percent), surfing
the Internet (48 percent vs. 18 percent), napping/sleeping (32
percent vs. 13 percent), drinking alcohol (24 percent vs.
11 percent) or smoking (25 percent vs. 6 percent).
Parents who say their stress about money is extreme are
nearly three times as likely as parents with low stress about
money to rate their health as fair or poor (27 percent vs. 10
percent).
Millennials who say their stress about money is extreme are
more likely than Millennials who report low stress about
money to say they engage in sedentary or unhealthy
behaviors to manage their stress, such as watching television/
movies for more than two hours per day (58 percent vs. 35
percent), surfing the Internet (67 percent vs. 35 percent),
napping/sleeping (46 percent vs. 24 percent), eating (41
percent vs. 19 percent), drinking alcohol (25 percent vs. 9
percent) or smoking (21 percent vs. 3 percent).
Millennials reporting extreme money stress are significantly
more likely than Millennials who say they have low money stress
to rate their health as fair or poor (31 percent vs. 6 percent).
WORRYING MORE ABOUT MONEY
Year after year, women’s experiences with stress continue
to be troubling. They consistently report higher stress
levels than men do and they appear to have a hard time
coping.
16
These patterns also emerge when it comes to their
relationship with money and finances.
Women report higher levels of stress about money than men
(5.0 vs. 4.3 on a 10-point scale) and are more likely than men
to say they feel stress about money all or most of the time (30
percent vs. 21 percent).
Nearly half of women (49 percent) say that paying for
essentials is a somewhat or very significant source of stress,
compared with 38 percent of men.
STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES AMONG MILLENNIALS
STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES AMONG PARENTS
BASE: ALL RESPONDENTS (n=3068); Parents with high stress about money (n=219); Parents with low stress about
money (n=111)
Q965 Do you do any of the following to manage stress?
BASE: ALL RESPONDENTS (n=3068); Millennials with high stress about money (n=228); Millennials with low stress
about money (n=169)
Q965 Do you do any of the following to manage stress?
PAYING WITH OUR HEALTH
All Americans
Parents w/ high money stress
Parents w/ low money stress
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Watch television/
movies for more than
2 hours per day
Surf the Internet
Nap/sleep
Drink alcohol
Smoke
60%
70%
40%
46%
28%
38%
18%
27%
32%
13%
14%
24%
11%
12%
25%
6%
All Americans
Millennials w/ high money stress
Millennials w/ low money stress
Watch television/
movies for more
than 2 hours per day
Surf the Internet
Nap/sleep
Eat
Drink alcohol
Smoke
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
40%
58%
35%
38%
67%
35%
27%
46%
24%
23%
41%
19%
14%
25%
9%
12%
21%
3%
48%
16
Men n=1204; Women n=1864.
page 7
WWW.STRESSINAMERICA.ORG
Women who say their stress about money is high (8, 9
or 10 on a 10-point scale) are more likely than women
who say they have low stress about money (1, 2 or 3 on a
10-point scale) to say they engage in sedentary or unhealthy
behaviors to manage their stress, such as watching
television/movies for more than two hours per day (55
percent vs. 38 percent), surfing the Internet (57 percent vs.
34 percent), napping/sleeping (41 percent vs. 23 percent),
eating (40 percent vs. 19 percent), drinking alcohol (21
percent vs. 9 percent) or smoking (19 percent vs. 7 percent).
Women who say their stress about money is high are
significantly more likely than women who say they have low
stress about money to rate their health as fair or poor (34
percent vs. 13 percent).
SEEKING EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
While the connection between stress and health is clear,
both appear to be affected by the social and emotional
support we perceive in our lives.
17,18
Survey findings show
that Americans who say they have emotional support
— specifically, that they have someone they can ask for
emotional support if they need it, such as family and
friends — report lower stress levels and better related
outcomes than those without emotional support.
19,20
But
finding that support when you need it can be difficult:
One in five Americans (21 percent) say they have no one
to rely on for emotional support. A similar percentage of
Americans (18 percent) say money is a taboo subject in
their family and more than one-third (36 percent) say that
talking about money makes them uncomfortable.
The average overall stress level for those who say they have
no emotional support is 6.2 on a 10-point scale, compared
with 4.8 for those who say they have emotional support.
Forty-three percent of those who say they have no
emotional support report that their overall stress has
increased in the past year, compared with 26 percent of
those who say they have emotional support.
Twenty-one percent of those who say they have no
emotional support report that they did not make any
lifestyle changes because they are too stressed, compared
with 10 percent of those who say they have emotional
support.
Nearly half (46 percent) of those who say they have no
emotional support say they felt depressed/sad due to stress
in the last month, compared with one-third (32 percent) of
those who say they have emotional support.
17
MedlinePlus. (n.d.). Stress. Retrieved from
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/stress.html
18
Southwick, S. M., Vythilingam, M., & Charney, D. S. (2005). The psychobiology of depression and resilience to stress: Implications for prevention and treatment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 255–291.
Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17716089
19
Uchino, Bert N. (2004). Social support and physical health: Understanding the health consequences of relationships. Yale University. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VxUgC6S255wC&oi
=fnd&pg=PP5&ots=6AwhG7hr9m&sig=r9DByAV1GBsCA3BgDiLDVjcXM-Q#v=onepage&q&f=false
20
Emotional support yes: n=2042; emotional support no: n=649.
<
STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
AMONG WOMEN
Women with high stress about money are
more likely to report sedentary or unhealthy
behaviors than women with low stress
about money
BASE: ALL RESPONDENTS (n=3068); Women with high stress about
money (n=550); Women with low stress about money (n=674)
Q965 Do you do any of the following to manage stress?
PAYING WITH OUR HEALTH
All Americans
Women w/ high money stress
Women w/ low money stress
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Watch television/
movies for more than
2 hours per day
Surf the Internet
Nap/sleep
Eat
Drink alcohol
Smoke
55%
40%
38%
27%
23%
14%
12%
57%
41%
40%
21%
19%
38%
34%
23%
19%
9%
7%
PAYING WITH OUR HEALTH
page 8
WWW.STRESSINAMERICA.ORG
PAYING WITH OUR HEALTH
For those Americans who feel the burden of stress about
money the most — parents, younger generations, lower-
income households and women — it seems that emotional
support is even harder to come by. Even within families,
talking about money and finances can be challenging. Only
37 percent say they talk with their family members about
money often and 31 percent of spouses and partners say
that money is a major source of conflict or tension in their
relationship. In addition, nearly all adults (95 percent) think
parents should talk to their children about money.
Significantly more Americans from lower-income households
than those from higher-income households say that they do
not have emotional support (27 percent vs. 17 percent).
Roughly one-quarter of parents (26 percent) and Millennials
(25 percent) say that they do not have emotional support.
Twenty-eight percent of parents and 34 percent of
Millennials report feeling a sense of loneliness/isolation due
to stress in the past month, compared with 24 percent of
Americans overall.
These groups in particular — and those living in
lower-income households — say they could use more
emotional support (52 percent of those from lower-
income households, 62 percent of parents and 59 percent
of Millennials say they could have used a lot, some or a
little more emotional support in the past year than they
received).
A fair number of Americans — 14 percent — say they could
have used a lot more emotional support in the past year.
While women are less likely than men to say they do not
have emotional support (19 percent vs. 23 percent), more
women report feeling a sense of loneliness/isolation due to
stress in the past month (29 percent vs. 19 percent of men)
and they are more likely to say that they could have used a
lot more emotional support in the past year (16 percent vs.
11 percent of men).
Only 37% of adults
TALK WITH THEIR FAMILY
MEMBERS ABOUT MONEY OFTEN
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
21%
say they did not make any
lifestyle changes because they
are too stressed
10%
say they did not make
any lifestyle changes because
they are too stressed
43%
say
stress has
increased in
the past year
26%
say
stress has
increased in
the past year
6.2
4.8
st
re
ss
le
ve
l
st
re
ss
le
ve
l
say they felt depressed/
sad due to stress in
the last month
say they felt
depressed/sad
due to stress in
the last month
(46%)
(32%)
No
I don’t have it.
I have it.
Yes
page 9
PAYING WITH OUR HEALTH
WWW.STRESSINAMERICA.ORG
<
AVERAGE STRESS LEVELS
3
4
5
6
7
Mean healthy
stress level
Mean stress level
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
BASE: ALL QUALIFIED RESPONDENTS 2007 (n=1848); 2008
(n=1791); 2009 (n=1568); 2010 (n=1134); 2011 (n=1226);
2012 (n=2020); 2013 (n=1950); 2014 (n=3068)
Q605 On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means you have “little
or no stress” and 10 means you have “a great deal of stress,”
how would you rate your average level of stress during the
past month?
Q610 On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means “little or no
stress” and 10 means “a great deal of stress,” what would you
consider a healthy level of stress?
Stress levels are declining, but still
higher than healthy levels
Since 2007, the Stress in America™ survey has examined how stress affects Americans’
health and well-being. This year, survey findings show that although overall stress
levels appear to be trending downward, this drop is not shared equally. Those groups
that consistently struggle with stress — women, younger Americans and parents —
continue to report higher stress levels and are more likely to report that they have
experienced at least one symptom of stress in the past month than Americans overall.
Regardless of group, Americans continue to report stress at levels higher than what
they believe is healthy, struggle to achieve their health and lifestyle goals, and manage
stress in ineffective ways.
STRESS SNAPSHOT
STRESS TRENDING DOWNWARD, BUT
HEALTH AND WELLNESS STILL OUT
OF REACH
Although survey findings show that average stress levels
have decreased since 2007, many Americans say they
struggle to achieve their healthy living goals and that
important health behaviors like eating and sleeping are
affected by stress. Only a small percentage say their stress
has actually decreased this past year.
On average, Americans rate their stress level as 4.9 on a
10-point scale, where 1 is “little or no stress” and 10 is “a great
deal of stress,” down from 6.2 in 2007.
Despite this downward trend, reported stress levels remain
higher than what Americans believe to be healthy — 3.7 on a
10-point scale — though the gap between average reported
stress levels and healthy stress levels is narrowing
(a gap of 1.2 in 2014 vs. 1.8 in 2007).
Forty-two percent of adults say they are not doing enough or
are not sure whether they are doing enough to manage their
stress. One in five Americans (20 percent) say they never
engage in an activity to help relieve or manage their stress.
Many Americans say their stress levels have either stayed the
same (53 percent) or increased (29 percent) in the past year.
Only 18 percent of Americans say their stress has decreased
in the past year.
The most commonly reported sources of stress include
money (64 percent report that this is a very or somewhat
significant source of stress), work (60 percent), the economy
(49 percent), family responsibilities (47 percent) and personal
health concerns (46 percent).
The most commonly reported stress management
techniques include listening to music (44 percent),
exercising/walking (43 percent), watching television for
more than two hours per day (40 percent) and surfing the
Internet/going online (38 percent).
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