Stress and Resilience in Functional Somatic Syndromes – A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Stress has been suggested to play a role in the development and perpetuation of functional somatic syndromes. The mechanisms of how this might occur are not clear. We propose a multi-dimensional stress model which posits that childhood trauma increases adult stress reactivity (i.e., an individual�...

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Published in:PloS one Vol. 9; no. 11; p. e111214
Main Authors: Fischer, Susanne, Lemmer, Gunnar, Gollwitzer, Mario, Nater, Urs M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 14.11.2014
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Adult
Adults
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Children
Chronic Disease
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Disorders
Female
Fibromyalgia
Humans
Irritable bowel syndrome
Laboratories
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Modelling
Models, Psychological
Neurosciences
Pain
Personality
Personality traits
Post traumatic stress disorder
Psychobiology
Resilience
Resilience, Psychological
Self esteem
Sex crimes
Social psychology
Stress
Stress (Psychology)
Stress response
Stress, Psychological - psychology
Stresses
Structural equation modeling
Surveys
Syndrome
Trauma
Young adults
Germany
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Stress has been suggested to play a role in the development and perpetuation of functional somatic syndromes. The mechanisms of how this might occur are not clear. We propose a multi-dimensional stress model which posits that childhood trauma increases adult stress reactivity (i.e., an individual's tendency to respond strongly to stressors) and reduces resilience (e.g., the belief in one's competence). This in turn facilitates the manifestation of functional somatic syndromes via chronic stress. We tested this model cross-sectionally and prospectively. Young adults participated in a web survey at two time points. Structural equation modeling was used to test our model. The final sample consisted of 3'054 participants, and 429 of these participated in the follow-up survey. Our proposed model fit the data in the cross-sectional (χ2(21)  = 48.808, p<.001, CFI  = .995, TLI  = .992, RMSEA  = .021, 90% CI [.013.029]) and prospective analyses (χ2(21)  =  32.675, p<.05, CFI  = .982, TLI  = .969, RMSEA  = .036, 90% CI [.001.059]). Our findings have several clinical implications, suggesting a role for stress management training in the prevention and treatment of functional somatic syndromes.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: SF UMN. Performed the experiments: SF. Analyzed the data: SF GL MG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SF GL MG UMN. Wrote the paper: SF GL MG UMN.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0111214