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Indicator: Stress

Data and Data Discussion provided by Communities Count

Figure 1: Average Level of Stress

Figure 2: Average Level of Stress by Age, Race/Ethnicity, Income and Education

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Upstream Indicators
  •   Income Distribution --- In the two decades between 1979 and 2007, income has shifted from the four lower income groups to the highest income group.   (view data graph)
  •   Social Support --- There are no significant differences in average social support level by region and no significant changes between 1999 and 2007. However, there was a downward turn in Seattle and South King County from 2004 to 2007.   (view data graph)
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Downstream Indicators
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Related Goals

Stress affects the way we live our life. When we feel stressed, we are less likely to make healthy living choices and more likely to feel unsatisfied at work or at home.

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Sustainability Snapshot:

Common sources of daily stress include having less money than needed to meet living costs, work overload, competing demands of work and family, and lack of time to get everything done. Low-income individuals are more likely to experience stress conditions more frequently, while discrimination adds to their stress. Continuing anxiety, insecurity, low self-esteem, social isolation and lack of control over work and home life have powerful effects on physical and psychological health by "turning on" biological stress responses too often or for too long.

Sustainability Trend:

There was no significant increase or decrease in the average stress score for adults in King County between 2001 and 2004.

Data Discussion

The Indicator Defined

Average Level of Stress Among King County Residents Stress was measured by asking King County adults 4 questions about how often they have experienced certain symptoms of stress in the past 30 days. These were used to create a perceived stress scale with a possible score between 5 (low) and 20 (high). The four questions were: In the past 30 days, how often have you felt: (1)...that you were unable to control the important things in life? (2)...confident about your ability to handle your personal problems? (3)...that things were going your way? (4)...difficulties were piling up so high that you could not overcome them?

Data Interpretation/Evaluation

In 2007, the average stress score for adults in King County was 8.0. East Region residents reported a significant decrease in stress between 2001 and 2007. In 2007, residents of Seattle and South Region reported more stress than residents of East Region. The 4 questions used to make up the stress scale are shown on the following page. Between 2001 and 2007, the percent of people who felt that they were unable to control important things in their life decreased significantly in King County and in each region except South.

Older adults, ages 65 and up, perceived reported less stress than people in other age groups. People of color reported feeling more stress than white people. People with household incomes $50,000 or higher reported less stress in their lives than those with incomes below $35,000. Those in the $35,000 to $49,999 range reported less stress than those with incomes of $15,000 to $24,999. College graduates reported a lower level of stress than people with a high school education or less.

Data Source and Limitations

The stress measures were contributed by Communities Count (www.communitiescount.org) and are from the King County Community Health Survey, 1999, 2001 and 2004 and 2007, which used the shortened (telephone) version of the Perceived Stress Scale, Cohen S, Kamarok T, Mermelstein R, “A Global Measure of Perceived Stress,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 1983 vol. 24: 385-396.

The limitations of an English-only telephone survey include the following: a) people who do not have a telephone are missed, b) people who do not speak English do not participate, c) people who have less education and lower incomes tend to be under-represented.

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