Life events, social support, and illness.

Positive and negative life events and social support were correlated with illness among Navy Submarine School students. Negative, but not positive, life events in the recent past were related to reports of illness. Although social support by itself was not related to illness reports, the relationship between negative life events and illness was stronger among subjects with low rather than high levels of social support. The results suggest the importance of assessing both stressful life events and moderators of response to stress, such as social support, in investigating the role played by personality in illness.