Psychological Stress

Overview

Psychological stress is the response that arises when an individual appraises environmental or internal demands as exceeding available coping resources, engaging interconnected emotional, cognitive, and physiological systems. The response mobilizes the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, producing changes in arousal, cortisol secretion, and cardiovascular and somatic function. While acute stress can be adaptive and performance-enhancing, chronic or overwhelming stress is linked to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and adverse physical health, and it interacts bidirectionally with bodily illness. Research in this area examines stress across clinical and community contexts, including its association with maxillofacial trauma, its burden among adolescents seeking asylum, and coping strategies that sustain resilience in people with multiple sclerosis during the pandemic. Studies address practitioner burnout and its safety implications, exercise as a means of managing stress, and the role of dispositional mindfulness and perceived stress in cancer survivorship. The contribution of early stressful life events to later depression and dementia, the mind-body connection underlying psychosomatic illness, and stress-related post-traumatic conditions in patients with serious disease are recurring themes, as are the experiences of displaced and marginalized populations. By integrating psychophysiological mechanisms with lived experience, the field informs assessment and intervention. The journal publishes peer-reviewed research on the determinants, mechanisms, and management of psychological stress.

Research published in this journal

12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

How this research is being cited

The 12 articles above have been cited 7 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

• The relationship between chronotype, dispositional mindfulness and suicidal ideation among medical students: mediating role of anxiety, insomnia and social dysfunction
  2023 · Journal of Sleep Research
• Psychological Impact of Poverty Alleviation through Resettlement Programmes: Special Reference to Young Adult Women Resettlers in Sri Lanka
  Niroshan Perera et al. · 2023 · Technium Social Sciences Journal
• The relationship between chronotype, dispositional mindfulness and suicidal ideation among medical students: mediating role of anxiety, insomnia and social dysfunction
  2023 · Journal of Sleep Research
• Being beneficial to self and caregiver: the role of dispositional mindfulness among breast cancer patients
  Xiaoyan Liu et al. · 2020 · Supportive Care in Cancer
• Being beneficial to self and caregiver: the role of dispositional mindfulness among breast cancer patients
  2020 · Supportive Care in Cancer
• Investigation and Analysis on Mental Health State of Breast Cancer Patients in China
  2018 · International Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research
• “Unsettled; Mental Stress In Community-living Adolescents Who Are Seeking Asylum In Australia”
  2016 · Journal of Behavior Therapy And Mental Health

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Psychological Stress, linking to each citing work.

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.

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