Stress and coping in multiple role women : an exploratory study

Bibliography: leaves 136-145.This study examined the relationship between stress and coping in a sample of women simultaneously occupying the roles of wife, mother and paid employee. The sample comprised 95 subjects recruited through medical practices. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected by means of self report questionnaires. Quantitative measures included the recent version of the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (Levenstein, Prantera, Varvo, Scribano, Berta, Luzi & Andreoli, 1992), the Reward and Concern Scales developed by Baruch & Barnett ( 1986) as a measure of role quality, the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989) and the Mastery Scale (Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). A measure of social support was developed for this study. Qualitative data was collected via 7 open ended questions. Responses were analysed for frequency of reference to emergent themes. · Stress ·constituted the dependant variable and role quality, coping, control and social - support the ~ndependent variables. Correlational and Anova analyses were performed to test for relationships between stress and the demographic variables. No significant relationships were found. Subjects who had complained of stress or been diagnosed as stressed by their doctors were classified as highly stressed, whereas those who had neither complained nor been so diagnosed were classified as low stressed. A t-test analysis revealed significant differences between the two groups. However, 42% of those women who had neither complained nor been diagnosed as stressed recorded stress levels above the mean. The most usual manifestations of stress revealed a cluster of factors related to time pressure and overload. Further t-test analyses were conducted to test for differences in stress levels between subjects scoring low in role quality, coping abilities, control and social support, compared with those scoring high on these variables. Poor role quality was .associated with a significantly higher stress level