Life stress and violence among ex-mental patients

Levinson and Ramsay ( J. Hlth soc. Behav. 20, 178–187, 1979) recently suggested that high life stress may be related to violent behavior among mental patients. Data are reported here from community interviews with 148 former patients and 245 respondents from the general population to further test this relationship. Self reports of the frequency of life stress events and four types of aggressive behavior ranging from arguments to assaults with weapons were obtained. High life stress was found to be associated with more frequent disputes of all types for both populations. When these relationships were examined with demographic control variables, the significant effects of life stress remained only for the mental patients. The implications of these findings for a situation-based approach to violence and to stress research are considered.