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Family Structure and Women’s Lives: A Life Course Perspective

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Advances in the Conceptualization of the Stress Process

Abstract

A principal feature of the stress process paradigm is its distinctly sociological emphasis on understanding how social structure has a pervasive influence on individuals’ exposure to stressors and their responses to these experiences. In his definitive paper on the sociological study of stress, Leonard Pearlin (1989) describes how individuals’ locations in the social structure of society have consequences for their psychological well-being. His consideration of the social contexts in which stressful experiences occur, the resources with which they respond to stressors, and the manifestations of stress has provided sociologists with an agenda for research that has stimulated sociological inquiry for more than two decades. Pearlin’s explication of the stress process paradigm was soon followed by an outpouring of research papers that sought to explore the impact of various statuses and roles on stress and its manifestations. This work continues today at an ever-accelerating rate of scholarly production.

One of the themes that has emerged from research on the stress process has been a consideration of the ways in which family structure creates a social context for stressors and their outcomes. Of course, the study of families has been an important feature of sociological research (Stryker 2007) and it seems clear that family structure has always been viewed as one of the essential structural properties of the stress process paradigm. Indeed, some of the earliest work within this paradigm was Leonard Pearlin’s examination of the effects of marital dissolution on individuals’ mental health (Pearlin and Johnson 1977). Life within a family requires that individuals assume an array of role responsibilities, navigate through the rewards and challenges of intimate relationships, and respond to the often conflicting demands of other statuses and roles. The dynamics of family life contribute to individuals’ exposure to stressors and access to resources; thus, the experience of various health outcomes and these dynamics are greatly influenced by family structure.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    At the time at which data for this study were collected, just over 5% of couples in Ontario were cohabiting and we estimated that less than 7% of families with children were cohabiting (Le Bourdais et al. 2004). Given that our sampling target was 500 two-parent families, the expected number of two-parent families with cohabiting couples (less than 65) was deemed too small for analytic purposes. Moreover, family law in Canada confirms the right of cohabitors to equality of treatment in terms of health and social benefits. In Canada, cohabitors who have lived together for a sustained period (usually 1 to 3 years) can typically access spousal health, dental, and social benefits. Moreover, given universal health care insurance in Canada, cohabitors are not disadvantaged a priori in accessing basic health care in Canada. In terms of health outcomes, Wu et al. (2003) find no differences in diagnosable depression or in symptoms of depression between cohabitors and the currently married in a large national survey of Canadians. Thus, for methodological and substantive reasons, we treated cohabiting and married couples identically.

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Acknowledgment

Support for the preparation of this chapter was provided by grant funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FRN-64175), the National Health Research and Development Program of Health Canada (6606-4262-64/2), the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (410-94-0604), and the Children’s Health Foundation.

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  1. Departments of Sociology, Paediatrics, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Children’s Health Research Institute; Lawson Health Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    William R. Avison

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  1. Dept. Sociology, University of Western Ontario, London, N6A 5C2, Canada

    William R. Avison

  2. School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, E. Charles Young Drive S. 650 , Los Angeles, 90095, U.S.A.

    Carol S. Aneshensel

  3. Fac. Social Work, University of Toronto, Bloor Street W. 246, Toronto, M5S 1A1, Canada

    Scott Schieman

  4. Fac. Social Work, University of Toronto, Bloor Street W. 246, Toronto, M5S 1A1, Canada

    Blair Wheaton

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Avison, W.R. (2009). Family Structure and Women’s Lives: A Life Course Perspective. In: Avison, W., Aneshensel, C., Schieman, S., Wheaton, B. (eds) Advances in the Conceptualization of the Stress Process. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1021-9_5

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