ABSTRACT EARLY ASSESSMENT OF STRESS AND ILLNESS

The current study sought to investigate the relationship between stress and illness, while examining the effects of daily stressors, depression, hardiness, social support and coping skills on this relationship. The information gathered was then used to design a time and cost effective questionnaire to predict people prone to stress-related illness. This questionnaire has been called the Stress Fitness Scale. The subjects (n = 44) were split into three groups (healthy, ill, and neither ill nor healthy) according to their scores on Gurin's Psychosomatic Symptom List for non-parametric statistical analysis. Scores on the Hardiness Scale, Perceived Social Support Friends and Family, Beck Depression Inventory, COPE, Hassles and Uplifts Scale and Life Experiences were analysed and significant differences were found between the ill and healthy groups in all five areas using a Mann-Whitney U test An intercorrelation matrix was performed and significant correlation was found between Stress Fitness and the other scales, although not for all the sub-scales. Many of these correlations corresponded with the differences found between the two groups using the Mann-Whitney U test. Item analysis was performed on the Stress Fitness Scale. Significant inter correlation was found for all the items of the Prone sub-scale, and all but three items of the Protect sub-scale. ii Although further research is necessary, from this limited study the Stress Fitness Scale appears to provide a time and cost effective way of predicting people prone to stress-related illness. ii