Abstract
Although research suggests that stress and rewards experienced in a social role are associated with changes in the centrality (or personal importance) of that role over time, little attention has been given to the mechanisms that account for this relationship. This study was conducted to examine change in role mastery as a mediator in the relationship between changes in role experiences (stress and rewards) and changes in centrality among 195 women who simultaneously occupied the roles of parent care provider, mother, wife, and employee. Regression analyses indicated that increases in parent care, mother, and employee stress eroded mastery in those roles. In addition, increases in rewards were associated with a bolstered sense of mastery in each of the four roles. Mastery was found to be a mediating mechanism in the relationship between stress/rewards and centrality in one of the four roles examined, the employee role. However, changes in women’s perceptions of mastery were unrelated to the extent to which women changed the importance of their three family roles. These findings extend prior research by demonstrating that mastery is a mechanism through which stress and rewards are associated with centrality in the employee role.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Barnett, R. C., & Baruch, G. K. (1985). Women’s involvement in multiple roles and psychological distress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 135–145.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182.
Baruch, G., Barnett, R., & Rivers, C. (1983). Lifeprints: New patterns of love and work for today’s women. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Biernat, M., & Wortman, C. B. (1991). Sharing of home responsibilities between professionally employed women and their husbands. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 844–860.
Brown, G. W., Bifulco, A., & Harris, T. O. (1987). Life events, vulnerability, and onset of depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 30–42.
Caplan, G. (1981). Mastery of stress: Psychosocial aspects. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 413–420.
Doress-Worters, P. B. (1994). Adding elder care to women’s multiple roles: A critical review of the caregiver stress and multiple roles literature. Sex Roles, 31, 597–616.
Finkel, S. E. (1995). Causal analysis with panel data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Franks, M. M., & Stephens, M. A. P. (1992). Multiple-roles of middle-generation caregivers: Contextual effects and psychological mechanisms. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 47, 123–129.
Frone, M. R., Russell, M., & Cooper, M. L. (1995). Job stressors, job involvement, and employee health: A test of identity theory. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 68, 1–11.
Gove, W. R. (1984). Gender differences in mental health and physical illness: The effects of fixed roles and nurturant roles. Social Science and Medicine, 19, 77–84.
Gurin, G., Veroff, J., & Feld, S. (1960). Americans view their mental health: A nationwide interview survey. New York: Basic Books.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513–524.
Hoelter, J. W. (1983). The effects of role evaluation and commitment on identity salience. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46, 140–147.
Kessler, R. C., & Greenberg, D. F. (1981). Linear panel analysis: Models of quantitative change. New York: Academic Press.
Krause, N. (1994). Stressors in salient social roles and well-being in later life. Journal of Gerontology, 49, 137–148.
Krause, N. (1999). Stress and the devaluation of highly salient roles in late life. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 54B, S99–S108.
Krause, N., & Borawski-Clark, E. (1994). Clarifying the functions of social support in later life. Research on Aging, 16, 251–279.
Lawton, M. P., Kleban, M. H., Moss, M., Rovine, M., & Glicksman, A. (1989). Measuring caregiving appraisal. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 44, 61–71.
McCall, G. J., & Simmons, J. L. (1966). Identities and inter actions. New York: Free Press.
McDonald, T., & Seigall, T. (1992). The effects of technological self-efficacy and job focus on performance, attitudes, and withdrawal behaviors. Journal of Psychology, 125, 465–475.
Moen, P., Robison, J., & Fields, V. (1994). Women’s work and caregiving roles: A life course approach. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 49, S176–S186.
Norton, T. R., Stephens, M. A. P., Martire, L. M., Townsend, A. L., & Gupta, A. (2002). Changes in the centrality of women’s multiple roles: Effects of role stress and rewards. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 57, S52–S62.
Pearlin, L. I, & Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19, 2–21.
Pearlin, L. I, & Skaff, M. M. (1996). Stress and the life course: A paradigmatic alliance. The Gerontologist, 36, 239–247.
Roessler, R. T., & Rumrill, P. D. (1995). The relationship of perceived work site barriers to job mastery and job satisfaction for employed people with multiple sclerosis. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 39, 2–14.
Rosenberg, M. (1979). Conceiving the self. New York: Basic Books.
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80, 1–28.
Simon, R. W. (1992). Parent role strains, salience of parental identity, and gender differences in psychological distress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 33, 25–35.
Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic intervals for indirect effects in structural equations models. In S. Leinhart (Ed.), Sociological methodology (pp. 290–312). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Stephens, M. A. P., Franks, M. M., & Townsend, A. L. (1994). Stress and rewards in women’s multiple roles: The case of women in the middle. Psychology and Aging, 9, 45–52.
Stephens, M. A. P., & Townsend, A. L. (1997). Stress of parent care: Negative and positive effects of women’s other roles. Psychology and Aging, 12, 376–386.
Stryker, S. (1980). Symbolic interactionism: A social structural version. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings.
Stryker, S. (1987). Identity theory: Developments and extensions. In K. Yardley & T. Honess (Eds.), Self and identity: Psychosocial perspectives (pp. 83–103). New York: Wiley.
Stryker, S., & Serpe, R. T. (1994). Identity salience and psychological centrality: Equivalent, overlapping, or complementary concepts? Social Psychological Quarterly, 57, 16–35.
Talkington-Boyer, S., & Snyder, D. K. (1994). Assessing impact on family caregivers to Alzheimer’s disease patients. American Journal of Family Therapy, 22, 57–66.
Thoits, P. A. (1986). Multiple identities: Examining gender and marital status differences in distress. American Sociological Review, 51, 259–272.
Thoits, P. A. (1991). On merging identity theory and stress research. Social Psychology Quarterly, 54, 101–112.
Thoits, P. A. (1995). Identity-relevant events and psychological symptoms: A cautionary tale. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36, 72–82.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1992a). Marital status and living arrangements: March, 1992 (Current Population Reports Series P20, No. 468). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1992b). General population characteristics: Ohio (1990 CP-1-37). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1995). Statistical abstracts of the United States (115th ed.). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Veroff, J., Douvan, E., & Kulka, R. (1981). The inner American. New York: Basic Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Norton, T.R., Gupta, A., Stephens, M.A.P. et al. Stress, Rewards, and Change in the Centrality of Women’s Family and Work Roles: Mastery as a Mediator. Sex Roles 52, 325–335 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-2676-3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-2676-3
Keywords
- women’s multiple roles
- role centrality
- adult daughter caregivers