Introduction

Stress is more of a feeling of mental, physical, or emotional tension. It comes as the body’s reaction to changes that normally require a response or adjustment. Events or thoughts that make you feel angry, frustrated, or nervous are likely to set-up the stress. An individual’s experience with stress is usually affected by one’s diversity. Diversity tends to influence whether or not stress will be appropriately diagnosed and treated.  Diverse communities encounter varied barriers when it comes to accessing healthcare in general. Diversity also influences how people experience and perceive different mental conditions (Algren et al., 2018). This is why some groups in society seem to be more affected compared to others. This paper intends to showcase how diversity influences stress. The diversity lenses to be used in this respect include age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Stress manifests differently and has a varying impact in light of age, gender, and socioeconomic status hence the need for mental health providers to employ diversity competence when dealing with patients.

Literature Review

Kobayashi et al., 2019 assert that stress management becomes more difficult as people age. The fact is that stress management is not an easy thing to handle for people of any age. This is due to the many factors that bring it about. However, it becomes even more difficult as someone ages. Among the reasons is that the body can no longer handle stress as it used to while someone was younger. The lungs and heart may not have the capacity that they once handled, and the body has a difficult time recovering from stressful events. A good night’s sleep usually works as a good way of reducing stress in some instances. Now, the problem is that as people age, they may not sleep soundly, something that results in higher stress hormones levels in the brain (Harvard Publishing, 2019). As people age, the issues that they face become even more complicated compared to when they were younger.

Sandanger et al., 2014, on the other hand, postulate that women are more susceptible to stress compared to men. They are usually more likely to report that their stress levels are rising compared to men. The stress comes both inform of emotional and physical symptoms. There also seems to be a difference between married and single women. Stress levels among married women are also higher compared to single women due to marital issues that they have to deal with (American Psychological Association, 2019). Women are more likely to suffer from stress compared to men since their brains are more sensitive to a hormone that is usually produced on times of anxiety. Men normally tend to adapt by making themselves less responsive to the hormone.

According to Algren et al. (2018), people experiencing low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to suffer from stress disorders more compared to those experiencing high socioeconomic status. This is due to the toxic elements that are associated with low socioeconomic status. Lower socioeconomic status is involved with several environmental and social conditions that tend to contribute to the chronic stress burden. This includes conditions such as noise pollution, crime, discrimination, and crowding, among other stressors. The people in low socioeconomic status are usually worried about different aspects of their lives. There are some that are even worrying about meeting their basic needs. As a result, such people can never have a clear mind since there is always a worry about how things will turn out with time. Job stress has also been associated with metabolic syndrome. This is a cluster of symptoms linked to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems. People with less SES also tend to have reduced personal control in their low-paying jobs. As a result, they have fewer resources and personal lifestyle choices at their disposal, and this is something that causes higher levels of stress. They are also likely to have less diverse social networks and are likely to skip breakfast, factors that are associated with poor health outcomes.

Analysis and Discussion

From the literature, it is apparent that diversity tends to influence different aspects of stress. It has been outlined that older people tend to find it difficult managing stress compared to younger people. This is because as people age, they tend to have more things to respond to, and their bodies are also not as strong as they used to be.  This is something that healthcare providers should take into account when caring for people with stress since it will determine aspects of diagnosis and treatment involved for different age groups. They cannot be approached in the same way since the results might not be effective that way.

Gender also seems to affect stress tendencies in society. Women are more susceptible compared to men. This seems awkward, given that women are more social compared to men. But Sandanger et al., 2014 outline that it is more related to how the women’s brain responds to the hormone inducing anxiety in the brain compared to men. As a result, healthcare providers ought to be more on the lookout for stress disorder symptoms when dealing with women. Earlier detections make it easy to treat since different stressors have not compounded yet.

It is also apparent that people with low socioeconomic status tend to experience stress disorders more compared to those with high SES. This can be correlated to the fact that individuals with low SES are subjected to more distressing situations and uncertainties in their lives. Uncertainty is likely to put someone on worry mode for a long time due to the fear of the unknown (Algren et al., 2018). Lacking control on most aspects of one’s life is also likely to trigger stress levels since people do not have the ability to make personal choices.

The diversity lenses involved in this paper also intersect in a way that brings a deeper understanding of the topic. A good example is the assessment of the age and socioeconomic status lenses. The stress implications of SES are also different when it comes to age. With young people, the socioeconomic issues going on in their lives do not act as a major stress factor compared to older people. This is because they have to deal with less complicated issues compared to the older population despite them being subjected to the same socioeconomic environment. This means that adults will still be more susceptible to stress even when both age groups are in low socioeconomic status. Treatment approaches will end up being different as a result.

Implications

The findings indicate that diversity has an influence on stress disorders. As a result, in order to diagnose, understand the cause, and institute desirable treatment, mental health professionals need to understand and respect different aspects of diversity. It is important to apply diversity competence when serving diverse communities and people for positive results to be actualized. A good example is how a healthcare provider should prepare unique care plans for someone with low socioeconomic status and another one with a high socioeconomic status. These people have different stressors, and they have different capabilities when it comes to access of varied resources.

Conclusion

Stress manifests differently and has a varying impact in light of age, gender, and socioeconomic status hence the need for mental health providers to employ diversity competence when dealing with patients. The paper has shown that as people age, it becomes harder to manage stress compared to when they were young. Women are also more susceptible to stress disorders compared to men. People with low socioeconomic status are also more likely to develop stress disorders compared to people with high socioeconomic status. As a result, it is important for health care providers to have diversity competency so that they can accord every patient the appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

References

Algren, M., Ekholm, O., Nielsen, L., Ersbøll, A., Bak, C., & Andersen, P. (2018). Associations between perceived stress, socioeconomic status, and health-risk behaviour in deprived neighbourhoods in Denmark: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 18(1).

American Psychological Association. (2019). Gender and Stress. Retrieved 13 December 2019, from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2010/gender-stress

Anxiety and Depression Association of America. (2019). Diverse Communities | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA. Retrieved 13 December 2019, from https://adaa.org/diverse-communities

Kobayashi, I., Sledjeski, E., & Delahanty, D. (2019). Gender and age interact to predict the development of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms following a motor vehicle accident. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy, 11(3), 328-336.

Harvard Publishing (2019). Does stress management become more difficult as you age? – Harvard Health. Retrieved 13 December 2019, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/does-stress-management-become-more-difficult-as-you-age

Sandanger, I., Nygard, J., Sorensen, T., & Moum, T. (2014). Is women’s mental health more susceptible than men’s to the influence of surrounding stress?. Social Psychiatry And Psychiatric Epidemiology, 39(3), 177-184.