Gender and stress levels of family physicians

The Work-Related Strain Inventory was mailed to a random sample of 700 family physicians (350 women and 350 men) who were members of the American Academy of Family Practice. A 60 percent response (418 surveys) was received. Occupational stress levels were compared by gender. There was no perceived stress difference between women and men family physicians. Other demographic independent variables were collected such as: age, role expectations, position, salary, occupational isolation, practice location, years in practice, number of dependents, and marital status. None of the demographic variables seemed to significantly affect the level of perceived stress except for a weak relationship with number of hours worked. Women physicians who responded to this study were younger than the men, worked fewer hours per week, were more likely to be unmarried and unpartnered, more likely to have no children or fewer children than men, had the major responsibility for the child care and home care, were paid less per hour than their male peers, practiced mostly in urban and suburban settings and had the same level of stress as men physicians. The fact that women physicians worked fewer hours indicates that, whether by choice or not, their practices consume less of their lives than the practices of men physicians. It would be expected that the responsibilities of multiple role expectations would add more stressors to women physicians\u27 lives increasing their perceived stress level to a higher score than the level of the men physicians. The multiple rewards from the varied roles combined with fewer working hours may have provided women physicians a more balanced and healthier lifestyle, thus lowering their perceived stress level to the level of the men physicians who did not have as many role expectations