Hypochondriasis and Tendency to Adopt the Sick Role as Moderators of the Relationship between Life Events and Somatic Symptomatology.

Abstract

A sample of 85 married couples drawn from the community (n = 170) completed mailed questionnaires about the past year's events and symptoms and about hypochondriasis and sick-role tendency. Life-events were related to symptoms (r = 0.17) as were hypochondriasis, sick-role tendency, and subjects' sex (rs = 0.23, 0.16, 0.22, respectively). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that hypochondriasis and sick-role tendency were also related to the association between events and symptoms, such that subjects with high scores on the former measures showed a reduced event-symptom correlation compared with low and moderate scorers. Low scorers on hypochondriasis and sick-role tendency had a considerably stronger relationship between events and symptoms compared to those typically reported in the literature. It was suggested that hypochondriasis and sick-role tendency may be moderators of the life-event symptom relationship and as such deserve more widespread use in life-events research. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1981
Accession Number
ADA096846

Entities

People

  • Arthur A. Stone
  • John M. Neale

Organizations

  • State University of New York

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  • Behavioral Sciences
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  • Psychology

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