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Internet becomes increasingly important source of information about health, including information about stress, and may contribute in shaping or consolidating specific beliefs about stress. Recent studies show that negative beliefs about stress, for example the belief that stress affects health, may have different adverse consequences. On the other hand, brief education about positive aspects of stress leads to decrease in arousal and improves performance in stressful situations. These findings support the cognitive-behavioural model according to which beliefs about stress strongly affect the emotional and behavioural reactions when stress appears. The aim of this study was to examine the quality of information about stress on the internet pages understandable to Croatian speakers and to examine whether stress is to a greater degree depicted as harmful or adaptive. For this purpose texts from ten internet pages which appeared as the first ten search results for the word „stress“ on Google search engine were examined. On the half of the pages it is not mentioned who is the author of the text, and on many of the pages incorrect information can be found. Stress is mostly depicted as dangerous and harmful for physical and mental health on the analysed pages, whereas six times fewer words is devoted to positive aspects of stress. Some of the advices for stress management are difficult to apply and may increase the level of stress. Exposure to this information may lead to development and strengthening of negative beliefs about stress. Therefore, it is important to include the experts in writing high quality psychoeducational texts about stress on the internet.
