Applying the Conservation of Resources Theory to the Psychological Stress Experienced by a Random Sample of Americans With Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, unpredictable neurological disorder whose wide ranging symptoms and capricious disease course are known to produce considerable psychological stress. This study applied the Conservation of Research theory in building a prediction model to explain variability in perceived stress and coping within a sample of Americans with MS. The study sample consisted of 1,114 people with MS, 219 men (20%) and 895 women (80%), who participated in a national survey of the employment and psychosocial concerns of Americans with MS. Primarily Caucasian (75%), participants ranged in age from 20 to 87 years (M = 50.57, SD = 10.31). A backward stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that women; non-Caucasians; younger people; those who had more difficulties meeting their financial obligations and who were less satisfied with their housing situations; people who reported lower levels of community and social life engagement; and those whose MS resulted in higher numbers of reported symptoms, lower levels of residual cognitive functioning, and lower levels of mobility impairment reported higher levels of perceived stress than did other participants. The aggregated predictors explained 41% of the variability in participants' stress ratings. The findings demonstrate the complexity in predicting how the onset and progression of MS affects an individual's psychological functioning.

Post-traumatic growth and trauma-informed care in vocational rehabilitation through the lens of the conservation of resources theory

“…The framework allows individuals to understand, predict, and examine this cost-benefit relationship, and then to shape the settings and environments they engage in as they pursue activities of their choice [18]. The COR theory's essence is that individuals seek to enhance and protect resources in four categories -personal, condition, object, and energy -and that loss or the threat of loss in these resource categories increases stress and can be traumatic [19]. Individuals are naturally inclined to improve their resources and avoid (or effectively navigate) situations that reduce their resources [19].…”

“…The COR theory's essence is that individuals seek to enhance and protect resources in four categories -personal, condition, object, and energy -and that loss or the threat of loss in these resource categories increases stress and can be traumatic [19]. Individuals are naturally inclined to improve their resources and avoid (or effectively navigate) situations that reduce their resources [19]. By understanding stress or trauma as a result of the loss of resources, objective perspectives on when and why events are perceived as stressful and on the amount of stress created are provided [19][20][21].…”

Can the Concepts of Energy and Psychological Energy Enrich Our Understanding of Psychosocial Adaptation to Traumatic Experiences, Chronic Illnesses and Disabilities?

“…that the theory postulates. Empirical support for the COR theory’s main constructs, including the association between the availability of work, social and personal resources and clinical outcomes, such as job burnout, PTSD, and CID-generated stress has been reported ( Xanthopoulou et al, 2009 ; Hollifield et al, 2016 ; Roessler et al, 2019 ). Concerns about the theory construct veracity have also been raised ( Halbesleben, 2006 ; Halbesleben et al, 2014 ).…”

Personal, health and function, and career maintenance factors as determinants of quality of life among employed people with multiple sclerosis

“…Personal factors that have been linked to QOL in previous research include gender, age, racial/ethnic status, marital status, and educational attainment [34,52,53]. In some studies, health and function factors appear to be the primary predictors of important psychosocial outcomes such as QOL, with those individuals who experience the most intrusive physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms of MS reporting the lowest levels of QOL [54,55,92]. Typical health and function factors in the literature include duration of illness, perceived stress, course of illness, self-reported symptom severity, number of symptoms, amount of fatigue, and extent of cognitive and mobility impairment [52,[55][56][57].…”

“…As a result, Simmons et al (p. 934) called for early intervention to address worksite barriers "before they undermine job satisfaction and become a disincentive to stay employed" [55]. A broad range of interventions pertains to "satisfactoriness" and satisfaction of an employee with MS including job accommodation, accessibility modifications, and employer education regarding MS and Americans with Disability Act provisions, and prevention and remediation of on-the-job discrimination [34,[90][91][92][93][94]. Of course, the pre-eminence of health and function factors as observed in this study remains an important caveat in any career maintenance intervention for people with MS; above all else, employed people with MS wishing to preserve positive perceptions of QOL should be encouraged to establish and maintain effective symptom management and health promotion practices.…”