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Our work is guided by an integrative theory of deviant behavior that has evolved over the years into what has proved to be a viable framework for integrating findings regarding the antecedents and consequences of deviant behavior. Our research program has estimated increasingly elaborated models that specify theoretically indicated mediating and moderating variables. The results of our analyses indicate that the integrative theory that guides our analysis shows great promise as a valid explanation of deviant adaptations to life stress as well as an inclusive organizing device for ordering the findings of others that operate within other theoretical frameworks. Our research agenda will continue to call for ever more detailed specifications of mediating and moderating variables and, thus, more inclusive explanations of deviant behavior. Where this is called for by our empirical findings or the results of analyses by other investigators, our integrative theory will evolve further toward the goal of providing a guide for a fruitful research agenda that will eventuate in a fuller understanding of the direct, indirect, and conditional causes and consequences of deviant behavior over the life course.

A random sample of therapists (N=161) working in the field of trauma were surveyed to study levels of stress. Therapists were assessed on measures of general life stress, burnout, and traumatic stress. Twenty-four percent were experiencing high levels of general life stress, 16% reported high levels of emotional exhaustion, 26% felt ineffective in terms of personal accomplishment at work and 14% were experiencing high levels of traumatic stress similar to clients with post traumatic stress disorder. Relationships between measures and demographic variables were reported, a profile of traumatised therapists was identified, and implications of these findings of therapists were presented.

In the 1970s, following the publication of influential papers by authors such as Caplan (1974), Cassel (1976), and Cobb (1976), investigators began to study social support (Norbeck, 1988). One oft-cited early study highlighted the potential importance of social support in pregnancy by considering social support as an element of “psychosocial assets” and showing that pregnant women with a combination of high life stress and few psychosocial assets experienced more pregnancy complications than did women with low life stress and a higher level of psychosocial assets (Nuckolls, Cassel, & Kaplan, 1972). Since then, a number of studies have attempted to clarify the role of social support in pregnancy outcomes.