Subjective Stress and Serious Illness of a Spouse: Wives of Heart Patients

Abstract

This paper examines stability and change in reported subjective stress during one year among 263 wives whose husbands suffered a first myocardial infarction. Patterns of subjective stress scores remained relatively stable over the study year. Level of severity of illness in the husband had some relationship to stress score at particular points in time, although clear-cut findings did not emerge. Some variations in subjective stress levels were also found between women of different educational and ethnic backgrounds. Reported subjective stress is reviewed as part of a more general stress experience, reflected in emotional volatility and marital unhappiness, rather than as a correlate of such variables as illness burdens in the household, employment of wife, age, and socioeconomic status.