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The relationship of role quality and perceived control to psychological distress in multiple role women
Abstract
As more women combine the roles of worker, spouse, and parent, there has been increasing interest in identifying factors related to psychological distress in this population. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that psychological distress in multiple role women can be predicted by a combination of role quality variables and individual variables, including variations in family role quality which enhance the management of work role demands (spousal support for work and parenting activities); variations in work role quality which enhance the management of family role demands (workplace flexibility and hours worked per week); and perceptions of control over the demands of both work and family roles (self-efficacy and problem focused coping). Three hundred thirty-one subjects, all of whom were married, employed, and the mother of at least one child under the age of 18, completed a self-report questionnaire consisting of the Spousal Support for Work and Parenting Scale (Greenberger, 1989), the Supervisor Flexibility Scale (Greenberger, 1989), the Self-Efficacy Scale (Sherer, et al., 1982) and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (Endler & Parker, 1990). Correlational analysis, analysis of variance, and hierarchical multiple regressions were performed to determine the relationship of these variables to psychological distress, as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1975). Alpha level was set at.05. As predicted, both role quality and perceived control variables were found to be significantly related to psychological distress for the participants in this study (p $\le$.05). When considered together, a combination of family income, hours worked, spousal support, and perceived control provided the best-fitting model of predictors of psychological distress. This combination of predictors explained 40% of the variance in psychological distress of the participants in this study. It is concluded that understanding the causes and correlates of psychological distress in this population is more complex than has been assumed and that individual factors and situational factors should be considered together. Implications of these findings for clinical work, future research, and policy are discussed.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
Piechowski, Lisa Drago, "The relationship of role quality and perceived control to psychological distress in multiple role women" (1993). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9329655.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9329655