Experiencing Everyday Stress

How does a war that ended many years ago affect stress responses in everyday life? And does it also affect the post-war generation?

Research conducted in specialised scientific centres provides important data that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. However, it is equally important to understand how people function in everyday life outside the laboratory. The study Daily Stress Variability in Two Generations of Survivors of the War in the Former Yugoslavia combines laboratory-based and real-world research to investigate how the long-term consequences of war-related trauma are reflected in everyday stress experiences across two generations of people affected by the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The study also included a control group of people with no direct experience of these wars. To capture stress in everyday life, the researchers used the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), which involves repeatedly recording participants' current experiences in their natural environment. Over a period of 21 days, participants repeatedly rated the level of stress they were experiencing at that moment.

In addition to average stress levels, the study examined daily stress variabilitythat is, how much the intensity of perceived stress fluctuates over time. For example, two people may experience similar average levels of stress, but while one person's stress remains relatively stable, the other's fluctuates more substantially. Such fluctuations may be related, among other factors, to how sensitively a person responds to different stressful situations.

The results showed no significant differences between the groups in average daily stress levels, but differences emerged in stress variability. Stress variability was lower in the first-generation group (people who had directly experienced the war) than in the control group, whereas it was highest in the post-war generation. Greater stress variability was also associated with more pronounced post-traumatic stress symptoms and other indicators of psychological functioning.

The study's author explains that the long-term psychological consequences of the wars in the former Yugoslavia may not be reflected in elevated levels of everyday stress or in psychological difficulties identified during an initial assessment. Instead, they may be more subtly reflected in altered patterns of stress perception and fluctuations in everyday stress, even several decades after the war and across generations.