Believing initially that stressful events had only
weak to modest effects on physical and mental
health, stress researchers from the late 1970s
through the early 1990s concentrated on perceived
control, self-esteem, and social support as stressbuffering
factors. Investigators in this era emphasized
the development of interventions to bolster
the coping skills, sense of empowerment, selfesteem,
or supportive ties of at-risk individuals or
families (e.g., Cohen, Gottlieb, and Underwood
2000), and this work has continued (e.g., Taylor
2007; Taylor and Stanton 2007). For policy makers,
interventions offer the opportunity to ameliorate
distress, promote problem-solving, and foster
adaptation among individuals facing major family,
job, health, and neighborhood stressors.
Policy Implication 1: To reduce the health
impacts of major adversities in individuals’
lives, coping and social support
interventions that most effectively buffer
the effects of stress should be identified,
their best practices distilled, and their
programs disseminated for wider use by
community agencies, voluntary and religious
organizations, and employers.
From the 1990s onward, mounting evidence
revealed that cumulative stress exposure explained
far more variance in ill health, disability, mortality,
distress, and disorder than investigators initially
realized, and that accumulations of stressors
were greatest in lower status, disadvantaged social
groups. Hence, programs or policies designed