DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTION OF DAILY STRESSORS AMONG RESIDENTS OF ARKHANGELSK AND SAINT PETERSBURG

Abstract

Aim: to study daily stress (DS) in adults by gender and city of residence. Methods: the study involved 334 adults aged 20-60, 158 subjects from Arkhangelsk, 176 - from St.-Petersburg. Instruments: Inventory of daily stressors, Scale of Perceived Stress-10 (FWS) and the survey. Results revealed high level of DS in all studied domains. Professional domain was the most stressful (М = 27,23 for Arkhangelsk and М = 26,07 fro St.-Petersburg). We identified a greater amount of DS in all domains, higher levels of stress (М = 16,8; SD = 5,09) and perceived stress (М = 31,2; SD = 5,46) in women compared to men (М = 13,7; SD = 4,74 и М = 28,3; SD = 5,58). In men, the most stressful were the professional (М = 23,69; SD = 22,74), financial domain (М = 17,02; SD = 21,00), the domain of interpersonal communication (М = 14,87; SD = 18,98) and the domain of the external environment problems (М = 15,05; SD = 15,01); for women - professional (М = 28,29; SD = 21,92), emotional, personal (М = 27,58; SD = 27,48) and economic domains (М = 22,71; SD = 24,57). The differences were found in a larger number of stressors in the domain of family interaction and household needs for Arkhangelsk; and more stressful financial, emotional and personal domains and domain of the external environment - for St.-Petersburg. Conclusions: comparison of the DS showed that for Arkhangelsk domains of family interaction and household were more stressful, while for St.-Petersburg financial problems, environmental problems and a sense of loneliness were more urgent. The correlation analysis showed that individual psychological features play an important role in the perception of stressors. The further directions of the research in this field should be focused on the comparison of stressors with the parameters of psychophysiological and personal functioning.