Work and Leisure

Stress and working parents 165What was less predictable was the lack of variation in stress by gender,income or level of education, at least among individuals in this sample. It wasonly when we divided our sample into high and low stress groups that moreexpected patterns of behaviour were evident. High stress individuals, forexample, show more work–family conflict, that is, they are more likely to feelguilty about not spending enough time with their family and unhappy withtheir role as partner and parent.In the case of high stress women, they appear to fit the image of the‘harried’ worker. What is perhaps most disconcerting is that they do not havethe benefit of ‘moderating’ stress that others experience when being at home.This seems particularly troublesome, as they may be less likely to have theopportunity to recover from the daily hassles of their jobs and the demandsof their households. Perhaps the greatest challenge for researchers workingwith stress is to find those activities and situations that precipitate stress andthose that enhance recovery toward a state of equilibrium.What our results show is that it is not the job itself that creates stress. Stressdoes not appear related to whether one is a doctor, banker or teacher, orwhether one earns $70,000 or $150,000 a year. It may be that job performancestandards and responsibilities permeate all aspects of the workforce. Thestockbroker and the nurse both appear to be internalising the demands oftheir work and it is this internalisation that appears related to feelings ofstress, that is, the feeling that they have to work at home on the weekends or inthe evenings or thinking about work when at home. Both high stress mothersand fathers feel physically drained and exhausted. And not surprisingly, lesspositive relationships at home between husband and wife are related tohigh levels of couple stress. These results seem to suggest that stress is lessstructurally determined and more personally and relationally situated.Notes1 In our current related work, we find that stress declines in intensity when anindividual gains a sense of control over a situation and experiences a decrease infeelings of frustration.2 The average number of beeps responded to was 43 beeps per person over thecourse of seven days. There was not a significant difference between the number ofbeeps answered by high (43.24) or low (41.09) stress individuals. Mothers tendedto respond to more beeps (45.61) than fathers (41.09).3 Among participants in the sample, 223 individuals were identified as having lowstress and 171 were identified as having high stress.4 In preliminary analyses, we did find that single employed mothers (women whohave been separated, divorced, single or widowed) are significantly more stressedthan married employed mothers (t = 2.01, p