How working mothers manage stress across multiple roles

Role Stress in Working Mothers

The "overall conclusion seems to be that what matters most is the quality of a working mother's experiences in her various roles"

Richard O. Straub (2006, p. 109).

Stress Components

Stress costs both males and females American workers an average total of approximately $7,500 per year through absenteeism, decreased productivity, and workers' compensation payments, according to Richard O. Straub (2006) in the book, Health psychology: A biopsychosocial approach. Women, however, particularly "working mothers," typically experience more stress than men. Ulf Lundberg of the University of Stockholm explains: "Women's stress is determined by the interaction of conditions at home and work, whereas man's stress is determined more by situations at work" (Lundberg, as cited in Straub, p. 109). As working women generally accept greater responsibility than working men to fulfill home and family related duties, the paper addresses the crucial research question: What components could contribute to help a working mother constructively cope with stress related to simultaneously caring for children and filling a role in the workplace? Stress-related considerations relating to the study include perceptions of stress, working mothers, work-related concerns, appraising stress and potential practical implications.

Working Mothers

Like men and women in general, working mothers routinely manage multiple roles. In the article, "Being a busy working mother is good for your health, claims study, Lyndsay Moss (2006), health correspondent, reports that a study reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health purports that the practice of "being" a busy working mother is good for the mother. Researchers "found that by the age of 54, women who had partners, were mothers, and had worked, were far less likely to report ill-health than women who didn't fulfill all three roles"(Moss, ¶ 11). Even though managing a number of roles may be stressful for a working mother at times, filling a combination of roles contributes to better long-term health.

To compute the number of competing demands in women's lives, Straub (2006) notes that Lundberg developed a "total workload scale," and discovered that age and occupational level do not dramatically impact a woman's entire workload. Children in the woman's life, nevertheless, significantly influence this aspect of a woman's life. "In families without children, men and women each average 60 hours of work a week. In a family with three or more children, women average 90" (Straub, p, 108). The working mother's psychological and physiological response directly relates to her work as well as to her family.

Work-related Concerns

Combining family and work constitutes a critical concern contemporary working mothers currently face. In the book, New Dimensions in Women's Health, Linda L. Alexander, Judith Larosa, and William James Alexander (2009) point out: "Women continually juggle many task in an effort to perform well at work, one and household, provide a loving home for their children, spend quality time with their partners, and provide care for their elders (p. 427). They also note that women who fill multiple roles like mother and provider experience fewer occurrences of depression and other problems relating to mental health issues than women who fill one role. Nevertheless, in some instances, filling a number of roles can contribute to negative stress and strain.

Working mothers often experience work stresses considerably more than working fathers. "Single mothers frequently carry the double burden, resulting in them being even more stress than married working women" (Alexander, Larosa, & Alexander, 2009, p. 428). The following figure depicts a number of percentages working mothers typically earn, compared to what men may earn for performing identical jobs. This difference in pay comprises a work-related concern that could conceivably contribute to increased stress for the working mother, particularly one filling the role of the family's sole provider.

Women's Earnings vs. Men's (Alexander, Larosa, & Alexander, 2009, p. 421).

Despite typically being paid less than men for identical work, many working mothers frequently have to manage multiple responsibilities; maintaining high job performance as well as serving as the primary caregiver for children (Alexander, Larosa, & Alexander, 2009). Straub (2006) stresses that researchers contend that although the challenge of juggling multiple roles has proved to adversely affect a working mother's health, simultaneously; in some instances, the testing enhances the working mother's well-being. "Research on the question of whether having a job as well as a home and family enhances or threatens a woman's health is sparse and contradictory" (Straub, p. 108). Two competing hypothesis, the scarcity hypothesis and the enhancement hypothesis assert:

1. Scarcity Hypothesis: This supposition maintains that as women only have a limited amount of energy and time, those who contend with competing demands may also experience from role overload in conflict.

2. Enhancement hypothesis: This theory contends that benefits accompanying meaningful work significantly enhance the worker's self-esteem and prevail over the worker's outlay (Straub, 2006).

Appraising Stress

Stress, according to the transactional model, comprises a process that includes a primary appraisal or evaluations of threat or challenge, a secondary appraisal or coping and reappraisal. McGowan, Gardner, and Fletcher (2006) explain the following:

Primary appraisal involves a decision as to whether a demand (potential stressor) is both relevant and stressful in that it is seen to represent a potential threat to the individual's goals, beliefs or expectations…. Demands can also be appraised as 'irrelevant' or 'relevant but benign'. A demand appraised as irrelevant or as benign (offering the chance to preserve or enhance well-being) does not initiate the stress process as there is no potential threat to overcome…. If a demand is appraised as relevant and stressful then further appraisal takes place. (McGowan, Gardner, & Fletcher, 2006, Antecedents to eustress Section, ¶ 2)

Stressful appraisals involve an appraisal of threat or loss. When the individual perceives the demand to exceed available coping resources, yet acknowledges that the demand simultaneously depicts a challenge, the potential exists for mastery and personal growth (McGowan, Gardner, & Fletcher, 2006).

Potential Practical Implications

Managing stresses related to multiple roles in depicts a major contemporary challenge for working mothers and includes significant implications for their health and well-being. Knowing how to best manage stresses, albeit, comprises yet another challenge as the "prescriptions" sometimes prove to be complicated which, according to McGowan, Gardner, and Fletcher (2006), may explain why researchers regularly document stress management interventions as ineffective.

To effectively manage the "stressors" at work, the working mother needs to first identify her work stressors. Afterwards, she must assess and control the stressors, yet also ensure does not negate the rewarding aspects her job may relate. When the working mother effectively manages her job's demands and occupational stressors, instead of inevitably experiencing distress, she can experience growth and positive change as she faces and addresses challenges.

In the midst of concerns relating to distress, the working mother would do good to remember that removing all stressors from work is frequently not feasible nor may it always be desirable. When one recognizes that the potential for positive outcomes of the stress process exists, the potential to identify ways to manage of work-related demands and experience satisfaction, contentment and better performance in the workplace and at home increases. Recognizing, acquiring, and implementing the tools necessary to more effectively manage workplace demands that may translate into stressors, however, requires education and effort.

In the following table, Straub (2006) compares a number of common hassles working mothers may experience to numerous common uplifts they may cultivate or nurture to help them better cope with stressors in their multiple roles.

Common Hassles Compared to Common Uplifts (Straub, 2006, p. 104).

Common Hassles

Common Uplifts

1. Concern about weight

1. Relating well with spouse of lover

2. Health of family member

2. Relating well with friends

3. Rising prices of common goods

3. Completing a task

4. Home maintenance

4. Feeling healthy

5. Too many things to do

5. Getting enough sleep

6. Misplacing are losing things

6. Eating out

7. Yard work; outside home maintenance

7. Meeting responsibilities

8. Property, investment, or taxes

8. Visiting, phoning, or writing someone

9. Taxes

9. Spending time with family

10. Physical appearance

10. Pleasing home environment

Quinn M. Pearson (2008) argues that multiple roles can positively impact the working mother's happiness and life satisfaction in the report: "Role overload, job satisfaction, leisure satisfaction, and psychological health among employed women." Multiple roles may provide "more outlets for one's interests, abilities, values, and self-concept. Closely aligned with this perspective is the role enhancement hypothesis… which emphasizes that multiple roles can be energizing and provide opportunities for meaningful involvement" (Pearson, p. 34). The role scarcity perception, however, like the scarcity hypothesis (Straub, 2006) purports that when role demands increase, the individual's limits to time and energy may exhaust and overtax the individual. This counters the supposition noted earlier that "that the quality of roles rather than the number of roles has the greater impact on life satisfaction" (Ibid.). The subsequent effect of multiple roles on the working mother's well-being, the literature indicates, relates to the individual nature of the working mother's experiences.

Findings from the study, "Calling and conflict: A qualitative exploration of interrole conflict and the sanctification of work in Christian mothers in academia, Kerris L.M. Oates, M. Elizabeth Lewis Hall, and Tamara L. Anderson (2005) suggest that a relationship exists between spirituality and coping construct. Spirituality "has emerged as a key component of individual psychology. Its relevance to the topic of interrole conflict is suggested by its consistent connection to well-being" (Oates, Hall, & Anderson, ¶ 2). Extensive research demonstrates that working mothers frequently report they experience inner conflict between their work roles and their roles as mothers. Prioritizing work in each role helps working mothers better cope with tension realign to their interrole conflicts.

Conclusion

The nature of the working mother's experiences in the work world as well as in her family reflects the quality of her roles as well as her needs as a woman. It also mirrors society's expectations of the roles the working mother fills. As the quote introducing this paper asserts, the "overall conclusion seems to be that what matters most is the quality of a working mother's experiences in her various roles" (Straub, 2006, p. 109). As in the past, working women will likely continue to accept greater responsibility than working men to fulfill home and family related duties.

To best answer the crucial question: What components could contribute to help a working mother constructively cope with stress related to simultaneously caring for children and filling a role in the workplace? - the working mother must first identify her stressors. Next, she needs to appraise or evaluate the challenges those stressors present. With this knowledge and perhaps help from those who care about her, the working mother can begin to determine how to better cope with the stress inherent in filling multiple roles.