Abstract
In 1972, Leonard Pearlin fielded a study of adults living in the Chicago Urbanized Area. The interview booklet was titled, “Problems of Everyday Life,” and with this disarmingly simple title Pearlin helped to expand social understandings of the linkages between social experiences and emotional distress. In the design of that survey and of its follow-up in 1976, and in the many empirical analyses as well as conceptual developments that flowed from it and subsequent projects, Pearlin inspired a wide range of scholars across many fields to give more sustained and careful attention to the persistent rewards and strains that are embedded in ordinary lives, and in particular those embedded in ordinary and normatively expected adult social roles, including marriage, parenting, and employment. This body of work also drew new attention to the social-psychological resources that people may draw upon in managing those rewards and strains, such as their own sense of mastery and self-esteem, as well as their social supports and coping efforts.
In this essay, I first discuss key aspects of Pearlin’s stress process model, and then describe how some of my own research on work and family inter-connections draws on this framework. I then try to situate this work within a life course framework, which suggests that these connections may vary for different cohorts and at various points in the life course. Finally, I outline a future agenda that can further knowledge in this area.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aneshensel, C. S., Pearlin, L. I., Mullan, J. T., Zarit, S. H., & Whitlatch, C. J. (1995). Profiles in caregiving: The unexpected career. San Diego CA: Academic Press.
Avison, W. R. (2001). Unemployment and its consequences for mental health. In V. W. Marshall, W. R. Heinz, H. Kruger & A. Verma (Eds.), Restructuring work and the life course (pp. 177–200). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Bierman, A., & Milkie, M. A. (2008). Intergenerational stress proliferation between adult children and parents: Contingencies by functional timing and parent’s gender. Advances in life course research, 13, 343–367.
Bittman, M., England, P., Sayer, L., Folbre, N., & Matheson, G. (2003). When does gender trump money? Bargaining and time in household work. American Journal of Sociology, 109, 186–214.
Corcoran, M., Danziger, S. K., Kalil, A., & Seefeldt, K. S. (2000). How welfare reform is affecting women’s work. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 241–269.
Cotter, D. A., Hermsen, J. M., & Vanneman, R. (2004). Gender inequality at work. New York: Russell Sage.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1974). Children of the Great Depression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
George, L. K. (2007). Life course perspectives on social factors and mental illness. In W. R. Avison, J. D. McLeod & B. A. Pescosolido (Eds.), Mental Health, Social Mirror (pp. 191–218). New York: Springer.
Hamilton, B. E., Martin, J. A., & Ventura, S. J. (2009). Births: Preliminary data for 2007. National Vital Statistics Reports, Web release, 57, no. 12, 1–23.
Jacobs, J., & Gerson, K. (2004). The time divide. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Johnson, T. D. (2008). Maternity leave and employment patterns of first-time mothers: 1961–2003. Current Population Reports (P70–113). Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
Kalleberg, A. L. (2000). Nonstandard employment relations: Part-time, temporary, and contract work. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 341–365.
Kalleberg, A. L. (2008). Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition. American Sociological Review, 74, 1–24.
Kalmijn, M. (1991). Status homogamy in the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 97, 496–523.
Klute, M. M., Crouter, A. C., Sayer, A. G., & McHale, S. M. (2002). Occupational self- direction, values, and egalitarian relationships: A study of dual-earner couples. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64, 139–151.
Martin, S. P. (2006). Trends in marital dissolution by women’s education in the United States. Demographic Research, 15, 537–560.
McLanahan, S. (1994). Diverging destinies: How children are faring under the second demographic transition. Demography, 41, 607–627.
Menaghan, E. G. (1989). Role changes and psychological well-being: Variations in effects by gender and role repertoire. Social Forces, 7, 693–714.
Menaghan, E. G. (1994). The daily grind: Work stressors, family patterns, and intergenerational outcomes. In W. Avison & I. Gotlib (Eds.), Stress and mental health: Contemporary issues and future prospects (pp. 115–147). NY: Plenum.
Menaghan, E. G. (1997). Intergenerational consequences of social stressors: Effects of occupational and family conditions on young mothers and their children. In I. H. Gotlib & B. Wheaton (Eds.), Stress and adversity over the life course (pp. 114–132). NY: Cambridge University Press.
Menaghan, E. G., & Cooksey, E. C. (2008). Well-being at mid-life: Family predictors of continuity and change. Advances in Life Course Research, 13, 257–281.
Menaghan, E. G., Kowaleski-Jones, L., & Mott, F. L. (1997). The intergenerational costs of parental social stressors: Academic and social difficulties in early adolescence for children of young mothers. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 72–86.
Menaghan, E. G., & Parcel, T. L. (1991). Determining children’s home environments: The impact of maternal characteristics and current occupational and family conditions. Journal of Marriage and Family, 53, 417–431.
Menaghan, E. G., & Parcel, T. L. (1995). Social sources of change in children’s home environments: The effects of parental occupational experiences and family conditions. Journal of Marriage and Family, 57, 69–84.
Parcel, T. L., & Menaghan, E. G. (1994). Parents’ jobs and children’s lives. NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Pearlin, L. I. (1983). Role strains and personal stress. In H. B. Kaplan (Ed.), Psychosocial Stress: Trends in Theory and Research (pp. 3–32). NY: Academic Press.
Pearlin, L. I. (1999). The stress process revisited: Reflections on concepts and their interrelationships. In C. S. Aneshensel & J. C. Phelan (Eds.), Handbook of the sociology of mental health (pp. 395–415). NY: Kluwer.
Pearlin, L. I., Aneshensel, C. S., & LeBlanc, A. J. (1997). The forms and mechanisms of stress proliferation: The case of AIDS caregivers. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 223–236.
Pearlin, L. I., & Lieberman, M. A. (1979). Social sources of emotional distress. In R. Simmons (Ed.), Research in Community and Mental Health, vol. 1 (pp. 217–248). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Pearlin, L. I., Lieberman, M. A., Menaghan, E. G., & Mullan, J. T. (1981). The stress process. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22, 337–356.
Pearlin, L. I., Schieman, S., Fazio, E. M., & Meersman, S. C. (2005). Stress, health, and the life course: Some conceptual perspectives. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46, 205–219.
Raley, R. K., & Bumpass, L. L. (2003). The topography of the divorce plateau: Levels and trends in union stability in the United States after 1980. Demographic Research, 8, 245–259.
Sayer, L. C., Cohen, P. N., and Casper, L. M. (2004). Women, men, and work. New York: Russell Sage.
Schwartz, C. R., & Mare, R. D. (2005). Trends in educational assortive marriage from 1940 to 2003. Demography, 42, 621–646.
Simon, R. W. (1995). Gender, multiple roles, role meaning, and mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36, 182–194.
Thompson, L., & Walker, A. (1989). Gender in families: Women and men in marriage, work, and parenthood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 51, 845–871.
Turner, H. A., & Schieman, S. (Eds.). (2008). Advances in life course research, vol. 13 (Stress Processes across the Life Course). Elsevier JAI Press.
Waite, L., & Gallagher, M. (2000). The case for marriage. NY: Doubleday.
Wheaton, B. (1990). Life transitions, role histories, and mental health. American Sociological Review, 55, 209–223.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Menaghan, E.G. (2009). Work, Family, and Their Intersection. 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_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1021-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1020-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1021-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)