Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1987

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Major Professor

John W. Lounsbury

Committee Members

Jack Larsen, Tom Ladd, Eric Sundstrom

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the lifestyle of working family women and their well-being. Previous research had indicated that role conflict between home and work roles was common, and that it could have adverse effects on personal outcomes. One objective of the inquiry was to test previously proposed relationships between home and work demands, interrole stress and well-being. Another aim of the study was to explore the effects of including positive resources (coping behavior, social support and personal rewards) together with demands and interrole stress in examining the well-being of working family women. A conceptual framework was developed based on open social systems theory as well as the literature on stress and coping.

Participants were 665 working women who were also wives and/or mothers. Data were collected via a survey questionnaire which measured home and work demands, rewards, and social support; interrole stress and coping behaviors; and the personal outcomes of tedium (physical, mental and emotional depletion), life satisfaction and job satisfaction.

Multiple regression techniques were used to test the hypotheses. Results indicated significant relationships between (a) interrole stress and the demands of home and work like and (b) interrole stress and the indices of well-being. There was evidence of interrole stress mediating the relationship between demands and tedium. Including the positive resources in the model added to the prediction of both interrole stress and well-being.

Coping behavior, social support and personal rewards were each significantly related to (a) interrole stress, after controlling for demands, and (b) well-being, after controlling for interrole stress. Different patterns of associations were found with the various outcome measures. After accounting for demands, coping behavior added most to the prediction of interrole stress. Personal rewards obtained from home and work life were most strongly related to the indices of well-being, after the effects of interrole stress were partialled out. Coping behavior accounted for a unique portion of the variance in interrole stress, tedium, and life satisfaction, but not job satisfaction. Social support accounted for a unique portion of the variance in each index of well-being, but not of the variance in interrole stress. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS