A New Study Seeks to Reveal The Techniques of Efficient Stress Reduction

Finding out what internal and external resources people use to manage stress and how those resources affect their ability to cope is the goal of a new, long-term citizen science initiative called FOCUS-R (Focus on Understanding Stress, Resilience and the Capacity to Adapt).

A survey will be sent to research participants every two weeks, asking them about their experiences with stress and the steps they took to manage it.

Dr. Madeleine Hinwood, a public health researcher, states that “gathering perspectives from a broad cross-section of the Australian population will allow us to identify social and systems-level barriers to achieving adaptability or resilience, as well as effective stress management strategies.”

Finding out which types of people respond best to different stress management approaches and who is most at danger of cumulative stress are the two main goals of this research. The goal of the research is to connect individuals with the stress-reduction tools that have been proven to work best for them.

“Terms like ‘resilience’ are spoken about frequently, but often place a burden on individuals to be more resilient. We want more detailed information about all of the nitty gritty of what helps people manage stress, particularly people experiencing the same or similar stressors, without simply splitting them into groups of resilient or not resilient,” says Dr Hinwood.

Initially, the FOCUS-R project aims to enlist 1000 participants across the country. The duration of the study is three years.

As the study goes on, participants will get feedback and information on the stress management strategies that work best for them.