Study Finds How Different Types Of Stress Can Affect Your Relationships

Forgiveness, and our capacity to forgive, is a fundamental part of being in human relationships, romantic or otherwise.

For this study, a team of researchers wanted to look for any correlations between stress, forgiveness, and authenticity. Authenticity, of course, relates to how much you're able to be yourself, which is associated with mental well-being—as is having a strong capacity to forgive. But what happens when stress is at play?

To find out, the team looked at a few different cohorts (comprised of 140 young men and women aged 16 to 40) who were experiencing varying levels and types of stress. One cohort was experiencing low stress, another dealt with everyday stress, and the third with chronic stress.

In this study, the participants with chronic stress were people who had suffered spinal injuries. But in general, chronic stress can be defined as constant, ongoing stress experienced over a long period of time, often tied to trauma.

On the other hand, everyday stress is the type of day-to-day stress experienced due to routine responsibilities and happenings.

Interestingly, the study found that people under chronic stress actually show the highest levels of authenticity—and the highest ability to forgive.

Further, those under low stress showed average authenticity and ability to forgive, while the cohort dealing with everyday stress had the lowest authenticity and ability to forgive.

In terms of relationships, these findings suggest it's important to be aware of when you're under stress—and how it could be influencing your behavior. Stress doesn't automatically make you a more difficult person to be around; it's all about recognizing and managing it.