Work and Leisure

Chapter 8Stress and working parentsBarbara Schneider, Alisa M. Ainbinder and Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiParents and stress: an overviewOver the past few decades, the number of dual-earner families in the UnitedStates has increased substantially (Waite and Nielsen 2001). In 1949, thepercentage of working parents with children under the age of 18 was 10 percent; in the mid-1990s it was over 60 per cent (Bronfenbrenner 1996). Whenboth parents are employed, it is assumed that there are likely to be emotionalcosts for the adults and the children (Hochschild 1997). One of the personalcosts often associated with work for men and women is job stress, that is, roledemands originating in the workplace that cause individuals to feel tense,anxious and lacking in self-esteem and confidence (Kahn 1980). Job-relatedstress, however, is only one type of stress that working couples experience.Balancing the demands of work and family, maintaining a healthy marriage,and providing adequate care for one’s children are just a few of the manydemands that create stress for dual-career couples (Hill et al. 2001). Thus,stress that most working families experience is evident in a variety of situationsand is likely to affect other relationships at work and at home.Stress is viewed as a complex emotion, much like excitement, that individualsexperience everyday (Wheaton 1999). Commonly regarded as a negativeemotion, when individuals are highly stressed they can be expected to feelanxious and tense (Monat and Lazarus 1991). 1 Extreme levels of perceivedstress have shown to be related to physical problems and general feelings ofdepression (Taylor 1991). Everyone experiences stress, especially individualsin certain jobs and those who have multiple responsibilities (Link et al. 1993).One of the common assumptions about stress is that, among working families,particularly mothers, it occurs frequently and is of such intensity that itis reaching near crisis proportions.Although scholars view stress as likely to be experienced by individuals atvarious levels every day, few studies have looked at stress over the courseof a day or week or in a variety of different situations (special issue of theAmerican Psychologist on Stress and Coping, 55, 2000). In a review of thousandsof studies conducted on stress, several scholars regrettably conclude