Stress and the College Grad

By Christine Gorman

The Latin class you took freshman year may lack real-world usefulness, but researchers think graduates may pick up a different kind of skill in college: stress management. A study in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior suggests that highly educated adults handle daily stress better than their less educated counterparts. Researchers interviewed more than 1,000 adults over eight days and found that although college grads experienced a greater number of stressful events (on 44% of days--compared with 30% for those who didn't finish high school), they were less affected by them and reported fewer health complaints.