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# Life events and social support

- Concept

Big life changes and daily hassles add up to stress. Having people to lean on protects health.

Updated Nov 5, 2026

## Key points

- Holmes–Rahe scale: 43 life events weighted in life change units; death of a spouse is the top item (100), divorce comes next (73).
- Both positive and negative events count (marriage, a new job), because both demand readjustment.
- A high score in the past year or two is associated with illness, but the link is correlational, not proof of cause.
- Social isolation raises mortality about as much as well-known risk factors such as smoking.
- Bereavement, especially of a spouse, is a classic period of higher risk of illness and death in older adults.

## What it is

In the 1960s Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe built the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, a list of 43 life events, each weighted by how much readjustment it demands. Adding up recent events gives a score linked to later illness and accidents. Later work showed that minor daily hassles also matter, and that social support is one of the strongest protectors of health.

## Key facts

- Types of social support: emotional (comfort), instrumental (practical help), informational (advice) and appraisal (feedback).
- Support is linked to lower blood pressure under stress, better immune responses and healthier behaviors.
- Perceived support (believing help is available) often predicts outcomes better than the amount of help actually received.
- Loneliness is common in older adults, migrants and students living away from home.

## Limits of the life-events approach

| Limit | Why it matters |
| --- | --- |
| Ignores appraisal | The same event can be a relief for one person and a disaster for another |
| Treats good and bad events alike | Negative events predict poor health more strongly than positive ones |
| Vague items | Items such as ‘change in eating habits’ may be a symptom of illness rather than a cause |
| Misses daily hassles | Frequent small stressors predict health problems, sometimes better than major events |
| Culture and era | The weights were set in one country decades ago |

## Clinical notes

- The social history (who lives with the patient, who helps, recent losses or moves) is part of assessing stress and risk.
- After a major loss or a cluster of life changes, screening for depression is reasonable.

## Memory aid

Life events are counted, hassles add up, and support divides the load.

## Test yourself

Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.

## Which item has the highest weight on the Holmes–Rahe scale?

Death of a spouse.

## Why do positive events such as marriage count on the Holmes–Rahe scale?

Because the scale measures the amount of readjustment demanded, and positive changes also demand it.

## What is the main criticism of the Holmes–Rahe scale?

It ignores how the person appraises each event, and its link with illness is correlational, not causal.

## What are four types of social support?

Emotional, instrumental (practical), informational and appraisal support.

[Add to my cards (4)](https://durgical.app/estudiar/?add=/en/behavioral-science/life-events-and-social-support/)

## Elsewhere in DurgiPedia

- [The endocrine stress response](https://durgical.com/en/physiology/the-endocrine-stress-response/)

## Connections

## Related 5

- [Stress: the general adaptation syndrome and allostatic load](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/stress-the-general-adaptation-syndrome-and-allostatic-load/)
- [Coping and resilience](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/coping-and-resilience/)
- [Normal grief, prolonged grief and depression](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/normal-grief-prolonged-grief-and-depression/)
- [Psychological factors in physical illness](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/psychological-factors-in-physical-illness/)
- [Normal psychological ageing vs dementia](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/normal-psychological-ageing-vs-dementia/)

## Related conditions 2

- [Adjustment disorder](https://durgical.com/en/conditions/adjustment-disorder/)
- [Major depressive disorder](https://durgical.com/en/conditions/major-depressive-disorder/)

[← All of behavioral science](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/)

Educational content on behavior and the clinical relationship; not a diagnostic or treatment guide and no substitute for assessment by a health professional. If you or someone near you is at risk, seek help now from an emergency service or a mental-health helpline.

Sources: [The social readjustment rating scale: Updated and modernised](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10727443/) (PLoS One, via PubMed Central (US National Library of Medicine), 2023); [Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2910600/) (PLoS Medicine, via PubMed Central (US National Library of Medicine), 2010).

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Representative model, for educational purposes only.

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License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Cite as: DurgiPedia (durgical.com), https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/life-events-and-social-support/