Spending time with someone who constantly causes problems may do more than just ruin your mood.
Over time, those stressful relationships could also affect your health and even speed up aging, a recent study suggests.
Researchers looked at the effects of people they call “hasslers,” folks who “create problems or make life more difficult.”
The study — funded by the National Institute on Aging and published in February in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — found that regular contact with these difficult people may raise your stress levels and speed biological aging.
Biological aging refers to how quickly your body’s cells age, which doesn’t always match your actual age in years.
The research team analyzed data from more than 2,000 people who took part in a health survey in Indiana.
Participants answered questions about their relationships during the previous six months. They were asked how often someone in their lives “hassled them, caused problems or generally made their lives more difficult.”
Researchers also asked people to rate their overall health and collected saliva samples. The samples helped scientists measure epigenetic markers.
A clear pattern emerged: For each additional hassler a person regularly interacted with, their pace of biological aging increased by about 1.5%.
That means someone with an extra difficult person in their life might age about 1.015 biological years for every calendar year, researchers explained.
“Even small effects in terms of biological aging can accumulate,” study co-author Brea Perry, a sociology professor at Indiana University, told The Washington Post.
Still, the researchers stress that the study does not prove that difficult people directly cause aging.
“We do not know whether hasslers actually cause people to age,” said lead author Byungkyu Lee, a sociology professor at New York University. “What we observe here is a kind of association between having hasslers and the rate of aging.”
The study also found that certain people were more likely to report having difficult people in their lives.
Women reported more hasslers than men.
This isn’t “completely shocking,” said Debra Umberson, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin who reviewed the findings.
Past research has shown that women often feel the effects of relationships more strongly, both the good and the bad.
“Women tend to be disproportionately affected both positively and negatively by things that are happening in relationships and by their relationship with other people,” Perry said.
“So it wasn’t that surprising to us that women might have more people who cause problems in their lives, in part because they are probably more likely to perceive the problems that others are having and to feel them and to sort of take those on as stress,” she explained.
People in poorer health and those who had difficult childhood experiences were also more likely to report hasslers.
Stress: Tips for Coping and Management
April is National Stress Awareness Month, an annual designation since 1992 designed to increase public understanding of the causes and cures for the modern-day stress epidemic. It highlights the negative impacts of chronic stress on physical and mental health while promoting actionable coping strategies like physical activity, meditation, and healthy lifestyle choices.
Here are some tips for coping, according to the American Institute of Stress:
Physical Activity: Regular exercise is a key way to reduce stress, improve mood and boost energy.
Mindfulness and Relaxation: Techniques like deep breathing, meditation and yoga can help calm the mind.
Healthy Habits: Maintain a balanced diet, get adequate sleep and avoid alcohol, nicotine, and drugs.
Social Support: Connect with friends, family or professional counselors to discuss problems.
Organize and Prioritize: Manage your time, set boundaries and learn to say “no” to avoid feeling overwhelmed.