Stressor Level Research Articles

The role of stressful life events preceding death by suicide: Evidence from two samples of suicide decedents

Stressful life events (SLEs) are associated with increased risk for suicidal behavior. Less is known regarding the intensity of SLEs and how this may vary as a function of suicide attempt history. As a large percentage of suicide decedents do not have a history of suicidal behavior, SLEs precipitating suicide may help characterize suicidality in this understudied population. This paper examines the intensity, number, and accumulation of SLEs preceding death by suicide among decedents with varying suicide attempt histories. Suicide attempts, SLEs, and suicide methods were examined in two samples: 62 prison-based and 117 community-based suicide decedents. Regression was used to compare the level of stressor precipitating death by suicide in decedents who died on a first attempt versus multiple previous attempts. A non-significant trend was observed in the prison population which was supported by significant findings in the community-based sample. Decedents who died on a first attempt experienced a stressor of a lower magnitude when compared to decedents with multiple previous suicide attempts. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to the stress-diathesis model for suicide.

The Relationship Between Childhood Psychosocial Stressor Level and Telomere Length: A Meta-Analysis.

This meta-analysis examined the association between the level of childhood psychosocial stressors and telomere length, an important health biomarker. The meta-analysis, including 27 samples and 16,238 participants, found a significant association of -0.08 between a higher level of childhood stressors and shorter telomere length at a mean age of 42 across studies. Moderator analyses showed a trend in the direction of effect sizes being significantly larger with shorter times between the stressors and telomere measurement. Moderator analyses showed significantly higher effect sizes for studies that used a categorical method for assessing child stressor level and for assays completed with qPCR rather than with the Southern blot method. There was no significant moderation of effect size by whether study assayed leukocytes or buccal cells, whether the study assessed child stressor level by memory-based recall versus archival records, and whether the study controlled for age, sex, or additional variables. The results, focused on childhood events, add to prior findings that perceived stress and negative emotions are associated with telomere length.

PENGARUH STRESSOR DI TEMPAT KERJA TERHADAP PRODUKTIVITAS KERJA AKADEMIK TENAGA PENGAJAR (DOSEN) UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH SIDOARJO

Based on the question: "Does stressor have an impact on the academic work produktivity of lecturers?", the writer tried toformulize in the research problems (l) Jn what level do the lecturers University of Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo (UMS) experience the stressor? (2) Does the stressor in the work place including job environment, individual, organizational, and extraorganizational significantly injluened the academic work produ ctivity of the lecturers? (3) Among these rnriables, which one was the most significant its influent on the work productivity of the lecturers? The purpos e of the research was (1) To know the level of the stressor which the lecturers ofUMS experience. (2) To know whether stressor in the work place including job environment, individual, organizational, and extraorganizational significantly had impact on the academic work productivity of the lecturers. (3) To know the variables, which variable was the most significant its influent on the academic work producti,· ity of lecturers.Sample used in the research was all the lecturers in UMS there are 27 altogether. To.find primary data the research used questionaire, and to find secondary data it used document supported by interview and observation. There were some technic used in the data analysis: I) Tabulation analysis and percenLage to know the level of the stressor, productivity, and percentage analysis to find out how much is the percentage of the respondent belonging to the level of certain stressor and certain work productivity. 2) Multiple linier regression analysis its purpose was to know the impact of independence variable on dependence variable and than used t-tets and F 3) Multiple linier regression analysis was used to know sub independence variable which one was the most significant its influent on dependence variable. The independence mriable used in this research were stressor in the work place (X) its sub varieble including job environment (Xl). individual (X2), organizational (X3), and extraorganizational (X4), than the dependence variable was academic work productivity (Y).From the tabulation and percentage analysis was fou nd that 7,41% of the respondents experienced low-level stressor, 92,59% medium-lev el stressor and 96,30% respondents had low productivity and 3, 70% had high produ ctirity. The result of multiple linter regression analysis showed that variable X significantly had impact on variable Y with determination coefficient 88, 90% and constand factor 6,574. The result multiple tinier regression analysis showed that extraorganizational variable is the most significant its influent on variable Y So, it was concluded that stressor in the work place signifi cantly had impact on the academic work productivity of the lecturers in UMS, and the most significant its influent variable was extraorganizational variable.

Multi-Sensor Based State Prediction for Personal Mobility Vehicles.

This paper presents a study on multi-modal human emotional state detection while riding a powered wheelchair (PMV; Personal Mobility Vehicle) in an indoor labyrinth-like environment. The study reports findings on the habituation of human stress response during self-driving. In addition, the effects of “loss of controllability”, change in the role of the driver to a passenger, are investigated via an autonomous driving modality. The multi-modal emotional state detector sensing framework consists of four sensing devices: electroencephalograph (EEG), heart inter-beat interval (IBI), galvanic skin response (GSR) and stressor level lever (in the case of autonomous riding). Physiological emotional state measurement characteristics are organized by time-scale, in terms of capturing slower changes (long-term) and quicker changes from moment-to-moment. Experimental results with fifteen participants regarding subjective emotional state reports and commercial software measurements validated the proposed emotional state detector. Short-term GSR and heart signal characterizations captured moment-to-moment emotional state during autonomous riding (Spearman correlation; ρ = 0.6, p < 0.001). Short-term GSR and EEG characterizations reliably captured moment-to-moment emotional state during self-driving (Classification accuracy; 69.7). Finally, long-term GSR and heart characterizations were confirmed to reliably capture slow changes during autonomous riding and also of emotional state during participant resting state. The purpose of this study and the exploration of various algorithms and sensors in a structured framework is to provide a comprehensive background for multi-modal emotional state prediction experiments and/or applications. Additional discussion regarding the feasibility and utility of the possibilities of these concepts are given.

Context-dependent environmental quality standards of soil nitrate for terrestrial plant communities

Environmental quality standards (EQS) specify the maximum permissible concentration or level of a specific environmental stressor. Here, a procedure is proposed to derive EQS that are specific to a representative species pool and conditional on confounding environmental factors. To illustrate the procedure, a dataset was used with plant species richness observations of grasslands and forests and accompanying soil nitrate-N and pH measurements collected from 981 sampling sites in the Netherlands. Species richness was related to soil nitrate-N and pH with quantile regression allowing for interaction effects. The resulting regression models were used to derive EQS for nitrate conditional on pH, quantified as the nitrate-N concentrations at a specific pH level corresponding with a species richness equal to 95% of the species pool, for both grasslands and forest communities. The EQS varied between 1.8 mg/kg nitrate-N at pH 9–65 mg/kg nitrate-N at pH 4. EQS for forests and grasslands were similar, but EQS based on Red List species richness were considerably lower (more stringent) than those based on overall species richness, particularly at high pH levels. The results indicate that both natural background pH conditions and Red List species are important factors to consider in the derivation of EQS for soil nitrate-N for terrestrial ecosystems.

小学校高学年児童および中学生における反応スタイルの調整効果とストレス生成効果

Relationships between response styles, stressors, and depressive symptoms were investigated in a cross section of adolescents from 4th to 9th grades. A model including stress-diathesis and stress-generation was developed to examine whether response styles moderated the effects of stressors on depressive symptoms, and whether response styles were linked to an increased likelihood of stressors. Results indicated that rumination and distraction functioned as moderators in adolescents that are high ruminators, or in adolescents that are low distractors exhibiting a stronger association between stressors and depression. Furthermore, all response styles were associated with the stressor level, such that rumination and distraction were related to increased levels of stressors, whereas problem-solving was related to decreased levels of stressors. It is suggested that a universal depression prevention programs for adolescents should focus on attenuating rumination and enhancing problem-solving skills.

HUBUNGAN TINGKAT STRES DENGAN KINERJA PERAWAT DI POLIKLINIK RUMAH SAKIT Dr. OEN SOLO BARU

Background this study was in the lives of everyday people cannot escape from stress, such as when humans meet challenges, threat or when it should be trying to cope with the expectations of their environment. For those who are not ready would cause a gap between body and soul. Nurses are the health care personnel who are 24 hours near the patient. the workload incurred by nurses is quite high because nursing is a profession with a group of the most front and nearest to the suffering, pain, and misery experienced by the patient and his family. Nurse at the Polyclinic Dr. Oen Solo Baru hospital Recently had a flurry of work are high, many of the demands of the work to be completed, and are expected to serve the patient with the best possible. Stressful conditions in conjunction with the nurse performance had the meaning that is important, because with a high level of stressor then it will affect the process of nursing services to patients.The purpose of this research is to know the stress level of relationship with the nurse performance at the Polyclinic Dr. Oen Solo Baru hospital.The method of this research is correlation research of two variables, by involving the first variable is the stress of work and the second variable is the performance of nurses, with statistical test Fisher with p value 0.05.The results from this study is there is no relationship between the level of stress with the nurse performance at the Polyclinic Dr. Oen Solo Baru hospital with the value of significancy 1,000 for 2-sided and 0.455 for 1-sided.Conclusion of this research is that there is no relationship between the level of stress with the nurse performance at the Polyclinic Dr. Oen Solo Baru hospital.Key words: Stress Levels, Performance.

A Comprehensive Systems Biological Study of Autophagy-Apoptosis Crosstalk during Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress.

One of the most important tasks of a living organism is to maintain its genetic integrity with respect to stress. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) has a crucial role in sensing cellular homeostasis by controlling metabolism, proteostasis, and several signaling processes. ER stressors can induce autophagy-dependent survival; however excessive level of stress results in apoptotic cell death. Although many molecular components of these networks have already been discovered, the analysis of the dynamical features of the regulatory network of life-or-death decision is still lacking. Our goal was to incorporate both theoretical and molecular biological techniques to explore the autophagy-apoptosis crosstalk under ER stress. Using various levels of different ER stressors we confirmed that the control network always generated an evidently detectable autophagy-dependent threshold for apoptosis activation. We explored the features of this threshold by introducing both autophagy activators and inhibitors, and transient treatment with excessive level of ER stressor was also performed. Our experimental data were also supported by a stochastic approach. Our analysis suggests that even if the switch-like characteristic of apoptosis activation is hardly seen on population level the double negative feedback loop between autophagy and apoptosis inducers introduces bistability in the control network.

Ecological concerns following Superstorm Sandy: stressor level and recreational activity levels affect perceptions of ecosystem.

Coastal habitats are vulnerable to storms, and with increasing urbanization, sea level rise, and storm frequency, some urban populations are at risk. This study examined perceptions of respondents in coastal and central New Jersey to Superstorm Sandy, including: 1) concerns about ecological resources and effects (open-ended question), 2) information sources for ecology of the coast (open-ended), and 3) ratings of a list of ecological services as a function of demographics, location (coastal, central Jersey), stressor level (power outages, high winds, flooding) and recreational rates. "Wildlife" and "fish" were the ecological concerns mentioned most often, while beaches and dunes were most often mentioned for environmental concerns. Television, radio, and web/internet were sources trusted for ecological information. The data indicate 1) stressor level was a better predictor of ratings of ecological services than geographical location, but days engaged in recreation contributed the most to variations in ratings, 2) ecological services were rated the highest by respondents with the highest stressor levels, and by those from the coast, compared to others, 3) Caucasians rated ecological services higher than all others, and 4) recreational rates were highest for coastal respondents, and ratings for ecological services increased with recreational rates. Only 20 % of respondents listed specific ecological services as one of their three most important environmental concerns. These data will be useful for increasing preparedness, enhancing educational strategies for shore protection, and providing managers and public policy makers with data essential to developing resiliency strategies.

Concerns and perceptions immediately following Superstorm Sandy: ratings for property damage were higher than for health issues

Governmental officials, health and safety professionals, early responders, and the public are interested in the perceptions and concerns of people faced with a crisis, especially during and immediately after a disaster strikes. Reliable information can lead to increased individual and community preparedness for upcoming crises. The objective of this research was to evaluate concerns of coastal and central New Jersey residents within the first 100 days of Superstorm Sandy’s landfall. Respondents living in central New Jersey and Jersey shore communities were differentially impacted by the storm, with shore residents having higher evacuation rates (47% vs. 13%), more flood waters in their homes, longer power outages (average 23 vs. 6 days), and longer periods without Internet (29 vs. 6 days). Ratings of concerns varied both among and within categories as a function of location (central vs. coastal New Jersey), stressor level (ranging from 1 to 3 for combinations of power outages, high winds, and flooding), and demographics. Respondents were most concerned about property damage, health, inconveniences, ecological services, and nuclear power plants in that order. Respondents from the shore gave higher ratings to the concerns within each major category, compared to those from central Jersey. Four findings have implications for understanding future risk, recovery, and resiliency: (1) respondents with the highest stressor level (level 3) were more concerned about water damage than others, (2) respondents with flood damage were more concerned about water drainage and mold than others, (3) respondents with the highest stressor levels rated all ecological services higher than others, and (4) shore respondents rated all ecological services higher than central Jersey residents. These data provide information to design future preparedness plans, improve resiliency for future severe weather events, and reduce public health risk.

Relationship between general intelligence, emotional intelligence, stress levels and stress reactivity.

Stressful life events and daily life stresses have both deleterious and cumulative effects on human body. In several studies, stress has been shown to affect various parameter of higher mental function like attention, concentration, learning and memory. Present study was designed to explore the relationship among GI level, EI level, psychological stress levels and acute stress reactivity in young normal healthy subjects. The study was conducted on thirty four healthy male student volunteers to study a) acute stress reactivity in subjects with varying levels of General Intelligence (GI) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) and b) correlation between GI, EI, acute stress and perceived stress. Baseline GI and EI and acute stress and perceived stress scores were measured by standard assessment scales. Using median value of GI and EI scores as cutoff values, subjects were categorized into four groups. Among different GI-EI groups, acute stress reactivity was similar but salivary Cortisol (especially post stressor level) and perceived stress level was a differentiating factor. High level of EI was associated inversely with acute and chronic perceived stress level. Significant correlation was found between acute and chronic perceived stress levels. Level of general intelligence showed no relation to acute or chronic stress levels as well as acute stress reactivity. The differences in various groups of GI and EI had no effect on the baseline and post stress performance on Sternberg memory test and all the three conditions of Stroop test. In conclusion emotional intelligence as an attribute is better suited to handle day to day acute stress and chronic perceived stress.

Authors' Reply

To the Editor: Akashi et al present interesting comments on the role of catecholamines in takotsubo cardiomyopathy patients. Combined α- and β-adrenergic blockade is an intriguing hypothesis; however, the only evidence we are aware of for any benefit is in a rat immobilization stress model. In addition, as the commentators note, several studies have shown that catecholamine levels are not consistently elevated in patients with takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Nevertheless, many patients in our practice are treated on diagnosis with carvedilol and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor as with any other nonischemic cardiomyopathy. The duration of treatment varies according to physician preference. None of the patients in our study were on combined α- and β-blockers on presentation. The role of higher doses of β-adrenergic blockers in attenuation or prevention of this syndrome remains to be studied. We have published a case of recurrent takotsubo cardiomyopathy,1 where the recurrence was precipitated by a higher level stressor (cerebrovascular accident) than the first episode, and the patient developed much higher cardiac enzyme levels despite being on low dose β-blocker therapy, suggesting that the severity of the syndrome may to a large extent depend on the level of stressor. Our study is by no means definitive with regard to the role of adrenergic blockade in the prevention or attenuation of takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Additional studies with higher doses of β-adrenergic blockade and combined α- and β-blockade (although difficult to carry out given the low recurrence rates), would certainly provide additional insight into this question.

Insights into Human Impacts on Streams from Tolerance Profiles of Macroinvertebrate Assemblages

We present the concept of assemblage tolerance profiles (ATPs) as an aid to freshwater bioassessment, and illustrate it with a practical example. An ATP describes the proportion of taxa in an observed assemblage that is estimated to tolerate each level of a specific stressor within a defined range. We used an extensive compilation of biomonitoring field data to estimate the lower tolerances for pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) of common families of macroinvertebrates in rivers of south-eastern Australia. These limits were then used to establish ATPs for macroinvertebrate assemblages at 30 sites across six river systems with varying levels of exposure to drainage from disused mines and discharges from sewage treatment plants. We hypothesised that sites with more exposure to mine drainage would have ATPs indicating greater tolerance of low pH, whereas sites with more exposure to sewage discharges would have ATPs indicating greater tolerance of low DO, and found that these hypotheses were confirmed for five of the six river systems. We suggest that stressor-specific ATPs, based on tolerances derived from either field distributions or laboratory tests, can help to verify or eliminate candidate causes of inferred human impacts on aquatic ecosystems.

PARK6 PINK1 mutants are defective in maintaining mitochondrial membrane potential and inhibiting ROS formation of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons

Mutations in PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) gene cause recessive familial type 6 of Parkinson's disease (PARK6). PINK1 is believed to exert neuroprotective effect on SN dopaminergic cells by acting as a mitochondrial Ser/Thr protein kinase. Autosomal recessive inheritance indicates the involvement of loss of PINK1 function in PARK6 pathogenesis. In the present study, confocal imaging of cultured SN dopaminergic neurons prepared from PINK1 knockout mice was performed to investigate physiological importance of PINK1 in maintaining mitochondrial membrane potential (Δ Ψ m) and mitochondrial morphology and test the hypothesis that PARK6 mutations cause the loss of PINK1 function. PINK1-deficient SN dopaminergic neurons exhibited a depolarized Δ Ψ m. In contrast to long thread-like mitochondria of wild-type neurons, fragmented mitochondria were observed from PINK1-null SN dopaminergic cells. Basal level of mitochondrial superoxide and oxidative stressor H 2O 2-induced ROS generation were significantly increased in PINK1-deficient dopaminergic neurons. Overexpression of wild-type PINK1 restored hyperpolarized Δ Ψ m and thread-like mitochondrial morphology and inhibited ROS formation in PINK1-null dopaminergic cells. PARK6 mutant (G309D), (E417G) or (CΔ145) PINK1 failed to rescue mitochondrial dysfunction and inhibit oxidative stress in PINK1-deficient dopaminergic neurons. Mitochondrial toxin rotenone-induced cell death of dopaminergic neurons was augmented in PINK1-null SN neuronal culture. These results indicate that PINK1 is required for maintaining normal Δ Ψ m and mitochondrial morphology of cultured SN dopaminergic neurons and exerts its neuroprotective effect by inhibiting ROS formation. Our study also provides the evidence that PARK6 mutant (G309D), (E417G) or (CΔ145) PINK1 is defective in regulating mitochondrial functions and attenuating ROS production of SN dopaminergic cells.

Prevalence of stress, stressors and coping strategies among secondary school students in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia

Introduction: In the process of growing, adolescents experience stress and their coping abilities determine the outcome. School training further adds to this stressful situation. It is noteworthy that persistently high stress levels will impair students' academic achievement, personal and professional development. This article describes the prevalence of stress, stressors and coping strategies among secondary school students in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted on secondary school students in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. Secondary school and participant selections were done via stratified random sampling with a sample size of 505 students. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Secondary School Stressors Questionnaire (3SQ) and Brief COPE inventory were self-administered to measure stress level, sources of stress and coping strategies respectively among the participants. Results: Out of 505 selected participants, 421 (83.36%) responded to this survey. This study found that the prevalence of distressed secondary school students was 32.8%. The major stressors for all types of schools were academic-related issues. This study showed that the students in technical school were more distressed than students elsewhere. Among the most frequent coping strategies used by the students were religion, positive reinterpretation, use of instrumental support, active coping and planning. There were relationships between intrapersonal and interpersonal related stressor, academic achievements, level of school and academic related stressor, attention from parent, behavioral disengagement, self-blame and planning coping strategies with stress level of the students. Conclusion: This study found that there was a high prevalence of distressed negatively stressed secondary school students, the major stressors were related to academic and contributing factors of stress were related to school training, students and parents. Training students on positive coping strategies, reducing stressor-related school training, and improving parent and teacher supports to the students will help to improve this condition.

Coping With Daily Stressors

Using daily diary methodology, 67 Mexican American adolescents completed measures assessing daily stressors experienced, specific coping strategies employed with reference to these stressors, and indices of psychological health over 5 consecutive days. With respect to coping usage, adolescents reported they most often used planning and least often used humor to cope with stress. Significant intraindividual and interindividual variability was found for each coping strategy and psychological health. When this variability was modeled, adolescents who reported using more direct problem solving, positive thinking, acceptance, and humor reported more positive affect. Adolescents who reported using more religious coping, distancing, and acceptance reported more negative affect. These findings indicate that intraethnic variability exists at the daily stressor level in Mexican American adolescents and that this variability in coping is predictive of daily psychological health. Discussion focuses on the developmental importance of flexible coping repertories in Mexican American adolescents and the (mal)adaptive nature of specific coping strategies.

PREVALENSI DEPRESI DAN GAMBARAN STRESSOR PSIKOLOSOSIAL PADA REMAJA SEKOLAH MENENGAH UMUM DI WILAYAH KOTAMADYA MALANG

During the mental development process, the adolescent will be exposed tonumerous events that might act as psychosocial stressors. These stressors might contribute to the prevalence of depression in adolescent. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression description of psychosocial stressor, and the relationship between psychosocial stressors and depression in adolescent. A cross sectional descriptive analytic study was conducted using 458 particiapants from three representative Senior High Schools in Malang district. The depression level was measured  using Beck Depression Inventory while Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale for Youth was used to mesure the  level of psychosocial stressor. It was found that prevalence of depression were as follows 32,5% of respondents with mild depression; 28,2% with moderate depression; and the remaining 11,1% withsevere depression. Of all particiapants, 59,6% experience a high level stressor, while the other 40,4% have low level stressor. The study identify a significant correlation (p&lt;0.001)between depression level and level of psychosocial stressor. . The risk of having depression is 5.87 higher in respondents with high level of psychosocial stressor compare to those with low level psychosocial stressor (OR=5.87). Therefore, a cooperation between school, community and parent is highly advised toprovide a favourable environment for mental development in adolescent. In addition parents, school need to prepare the adolescent in order to anticipate numeros events that influence their mental health.

The Effect of Stressor Level Grading on the Stimulus Seeking Behavior of Rats Differing in Emotional Reactivity1

The Effect of Stressor Level Grading on the Stimulus Seeking Behavior of Rats Differing in Emotional Reactivity1 A natural disaster — such as a flood — is a sequence of events: swollen water level leading to the flooding of homesteads — primary stressor and later environmental consequences — secondary stressor syndrome. In order to be valid, an experimental model must ensure similarity of the stress-evoked behavioral symptoms. The most frequently administered behavioral tests measure exploratory behavior in the broad sense (we used the following test battery: self-exposition chamber, open field and elevated cross-maze). We also included emotional reactivity in the experimental design in order to test the idea that lower emotional reactivity alleviates the consequences of stress and therefore acts preventively. Reduced emotional reactivity and increased stressor intensity additively contribute to increased exploratory behavior. A main handling effect is found for most indices of emotional behavior. The proposed experimental model seems to meet two important criteria: it has face validity and it evokes very clear behavioral consequences, ones which are universal for most indices of exploratory behavior

The Joint Effects of Life Stress and Negative Social Exchanges on Emotional Distress

Negative social exchanges detract considerably from older adults' emotional health, but little is known about the specific factors that make some older adults more vulnerable than others to such exchanges. This study examined whether stressful life experiences compound the impact of negative social exchanges on emotional distress. We examined both linear and nonlinear models of the joint effects of negative social exchanges and stressful life experiences. In-person interviews took place with a representative sample of 916 noninstitutionalized older adults. We examined linear and nonlinear models for three classes of stressful life experiences (relationship losses, disruptive events, and functional impairment). Regression analyses that included first-order and second-order interaction terms revealed a linear pattern for loss events and functional impairment, and a nonlinear pattern for disruptive events. This study suggests that negative social exchanges and stressful life experiences jointly affect emotional distress, but the particular nature of the joint effects varies by type and level of stressor. Negative social exchanges appear to have more severe effects in the context of some stressors but less severe effects in the context of other stressors.

Acculturative Stressor and Meaning of Life as Predictors of Negative Affect in Acculturation: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study between Chinese International Students in Australia and Hong Kong

The purpose of the present study was to compare the predictive effects of acculturative stressor and meaning of life on negative affect in the process of acculturation between Chinese international students in Australia and Hong Kong. Four hundred mainland Chinese students studying at six universities in Hong Kong and 227 Chinese international students studying at the University of Melbourne in Australia completed a questionnaire that included measures of acculturative stressor, meaning of life, negative affect and demographic information. The Australian sample was found to have a higher level of acculturative stressor and negative affect than the Hong Kong sample. Acculturative stressor had a positive impact on negative affect in both samples, but the impact of different domains of acculturative stressor on negative affect varied between the two groups. Finally, meaning of life partially mediated the relationship between acculturative stressor and negative affect in the Hong Kong sample, but no such effect was found in the Australia sample. Acculturative stressor is a critical risk factor for negative affect in acculturation for Chinese international students in Australia and Hong Kong. Meaning of life acted as a protective factor that mitigated negative affect for mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong, but not for the Chinese international students in Australia. The theoretical and practical implications for resilience-based and meaning-oriented intervention for Chinese international students are discussed.