Stress Resilience Among Border Mexican American Women

The concept of stress generally refers to situations which trigger physical and emotional reactions as well as the reactions themselves. Selye (1993), a pioneer in stress research theory, has characterized stress as the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it. Stress sources are basically classified as physical, pychological, and psychosocial (Karren, et al., 2006). Physical stress involves stressors in the environment, such as pollution or constant noise; psychological stress stems from the way one reacts toward anything threatening, whether the threat is real or imagined; psychosocial stress involves stressors from interpersonal relationships and with those we interact with. Considerable research has associated stress with a range of medical problems (McEwen, 2002). The underlying premise is that stressors, through the actions of the nervous and endocrine systems, impair the immune system thereby increasing susceptibility to certain illnesses with females reporting greater stress levels and illness symptons than males (Denton, et al., 2004; Segerstrom & Miller, 2004). Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify factors distinguishing Mexican American women living near the U.S./Mexico border who are resilient to the experience of stress and those who are not. Methods: The study sample was drawn from the parents and adult relatives of fourth- and fifth-grade students enrolled in four elementary schools of two school districts located in the Lower Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. Data were gathered through a self-report survey instrument, in both English and Spanish, comprised of a stress vulnerability scale and acculturation, health, age, physical activity, education, and marital status measurement items. Four hundred eighteen women (M age 37.5 years; age range 20-61 years) served as study participants. Analysis/Results: To determine stress-buffering factors, participants were grouped into stress suceptible and stress resistant categories and descriptive discriminant analysis employing stepwise regression was used to ascertain what variables made the greatest contribution in discerning between the two groups. Results indicated higher educational attainment, greater acculturation, and better health status significantly (p<.01) differentiated between those women reporting themselves resilient to the effects of stress versus those reporting being vulnerable. Conclusions: Findings suggest that development of a more stress resilient personality among Mexican American women appears to be the result of a complex interaction of acculturation and education effecting health status.