ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with status-related sources of stress. The hypothesis that there is an inverse relation between the amount of stress an individual experiences and his social class position implies that stressors are more common in the lower class. Evidence from census data concerning developmental security stressors seems to support this suggestion. Most nondevelopmental achievement stressors are probably almost entirely outside the experience of most lower-class members. Job promotions and business expansions are by their very nature almost exclusively middle-class stressors. Insofar as the lower-class person attempts to deal with stressors by manipulation of objective conditions, he is disadvantaged with respect to external mediating factors, since his relatively small income makes him less able than a member of the middle class to command needed goods and services. The extent to which a stressor is threatening depends on external mediating factors and on the relation of the consequences of the stressor to the individual's values.
