Exploring possible similarities and differences between mothers who work outside the home and mothers who do not, this study provides a preliminary investigation of maternal reactions to mother-child separation when children have reached school age. A total of 41 women working outside the home and 48 mothers staying at home responded to a…

The insecurities generated in children by stressful environmental changes can compromise their receptivity to learning and their attitude toward school. Studies examining divorce outcomes focus primarily on two cognitive indicators: achievement and intelligence. This study explored the relationship between creative thinking components and family…

Registered nurses, interns, and residents from five hospitals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey were administered the Maslach Human Services Survey, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, Rotter's Locus of Control Scale, Newman's Alpha Omega Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Results strongly suggested that an individual with high self-esteem and…

The theoretical notions underpinning what stress is, where it is located, how it is thought to operate and with what sorts of consequences are the focuses of this paper. Beginning with a list of sources representing the medical/psychological model of stress, the paper then discusses this model, including how biologic stress is conceptualized by…

This reference book is designed for participants in a workshop or course series for women who are newly independent or involved in other life transitions. The contents of each topic are presented through narratives, group exercises, individual tasks, discussions, and use of specific resources. The first unit covers the concerns faced by a woman on…

The Dual Employed Coping Scales (DECS) were developed to measure coping behaviors and patterns of dual-employed families. The original DECS (58 self-report items) was administered to a sample of 60 individuals in dual-employed families. In another study, in which 69 dual-employed couples completed the DECS and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion…

The current trend toward increased participation of women in the work force has produced an emerging contemporary model of dual career families. Previous research about the dynamics of successful working couples has emphasized the need for an investigation of personality characteristics of such couples. Dual career couples (N=51) were separated…

There is a current trend towards maintaining dementia patients at home and postponing institutionalization as long as possible. Previous research has suggested that frequency of help and support received by the caregiver is more predictive of burden than memory or behavior problems of the patient. Burden and distress were investigated using a…

Previous research has shown that employed men are generally healthier than employed women, due in part to the dual role of women as workers and homemakers. To examine this explanation, the impact of four types of daily hassles (minor stressful events) was compared on two adaptational outcomes, psychological symptoms and health, for working men and…

Psychological abuse, defined as behavior that is sufficiently threatening to limit the capacity to work, family and social interactions, and the enjoyment of good physical or mental health can be as damaging to women as physical abuse. To learn more about this behavior a series of open ended interviews was conducted with 25 women who identified…

This paper describes the program and research related to the "Making It" series of 18 multi-media divorce workshops co-sponsored by a community mental health center (CMHC) and a chapter of Parents without Partners (PWP). An introductory section discusses the rationale for larger scale community intervention and epidemiological research. The…

Researchers have pointed out that the effects of generic stressors such as poverty may be mediated through other stressors in the microsystem of parent-child relationships or personal characteristics of family members. Specific, potential mediating stressors were sought in this study involving 191 low income Moslem families who had immigrated from…

In two parts, this paper discusses areas in family disruption, describes children's experiences of loss, and suggests strategies for helping children cope with such experiences. Specifically, part one provides: (1) global, normative summary descriptions of adjustment patterns of children from preschool age through adolescence and descriptions of…

Consequences of mothers' participation in child care (interaction and child-care tasks) on 160 Caucasian middle-class fathers and mothers were examined in an interview study of parents of kindergarten and fourth grade children. In half of the families, mothers were employed. Three forms of mothers' participation were examined in relation to two…

The research reported here examines the consequences of inconsistency between the individual's statuses, his or her spouse's statuses, as well as inconsistencies between husbands' and wives' education and occupation status. Measures of generalized life dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction with marriage are the outcome variables. The data were…