Interpersonal Influence and Symptoms of Stress.

Many previous works relating the social structure to states of psychological stress or tension have accorded some importance to the role of interpersonal influence. Here, three fundamental features of the influence process held pertinent to stress are delineated. To assess the relative impact of (1) discrepancy among influences, (2) level of influence, and (3) the number of influence sources, data from 58 rural high school students and over 750 of their sources of educational and occupational influence are examined. The results of this analysis suggest that a multi-dimensional conception of the relationship between interpersonal influence and stress seems warranted. Implications for the future study of stress and our conception of the influence process are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]