The effects of hardiness, exercise, and stressful life events on the onset of illness.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among personality hardiness, exercise, and stressful life events on the onset of illness. Participants included 240 volunteers (89 males and 151 females) whose median age was 19 years and who were enrolled in a lower level undergraduate psychology class at a midwestern state university. They completed a demographic questionnaire, the Dispositional Resilience Scale (DRS; Bartone, Ursano, Wright, & Ingraham, 1989), the Exercise Participation Questionnaire (EPQ; Roth & Fillingim, 1988), the Life Experiences Survey (LES; Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978) and a modified version of the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale (SIRS; Brown & Siegel, 1988). Results indicated that neither hardiness nor exercise affected the onset of illness. Specifically, no significant differences were found for the main effect of hardiness or exercise on the illness measure. However, examination of the data revealed individuals who experience a higher number of stressful life events reported a higher number of illnesses. Finally, Pearson product-moment correlations indicated that stressful life events were correlated with the illness score. Participants who experienced a significant amount of stress also reported a greater amount of illneses. A slight, but statistically significant inverse correlation emerged between stressful life events and hardiness.