New research has highlighted the potential gender gap in stress, with women reporting higher levels of stress from life events, such as the death of a loved one, illness and the loss of their smartphone. The study asked more than 2,000 people to rate how stressful they found major life events — and for each event, women experience more stress than men. The biggest difference was in the stress caused by the threat of terrorism and the smallest before the arrival of the first child.
The results for some events indicate increasing stress with age, strongest for long-term problems such as illness or imprisonment. Exceptions to this trend were the loss of a smartphone, which matches the additional difficulties strongly associated with younger generations, and the arrival of a first child. This was rated highest by those between the ages of 25-34.
