SAN FRANCISCO (USA Today) – For women, hearing about happy events in the lives of friends and family lowers stress levels. But reading about bad news can raise them, a study out Thursday finds.
The study, called “the cost of caring,” was conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet project. Pew is a Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank.
The survey was conducted by telephone in English and Spanish and included 2,013 adults. The researchers used the Perceived Stress Scale to measure stress, which was defined as the extent to which people felt their lives were overloaded, unpredictable and uncontrollable.
“Everything’s all find and dandy,” until something unfortunate happens in the lives of people you care about, said Keith Hampton, a professor of information at Rutgers University.