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Coping
With Work-Related Stress
Stress is endemic to academia; however, adverse health consequences are
not inevitable. Why? Effects of stress on health are moderated by a variety
of other factors, such as:
Coping
Style
Problem-focused coping (take-charge strategies that deal with the problem
at hand or eliminate the stressors through problem solving) often enhances
feelings of control and reduces stress and its adverse consequences, assuming
that the situation can be changed. Positive forms of emotion-focused coping
deal with the emotional reactions one has to the stressful event (e.g.,
reinterpreting the event in a positive light). When a situation is unchangeable,
emotion-focused coping may lead to healthier adaptation. Negative forms
of emotion-focused coping, such as denial, self-blame, and ruminative
coping (repeatedly thinking about the problem without trying to change
it), are associated with maladaptive health outcomes. While some research
suggests that men are more likely to use problem-focused coping strategies
and women emotion-focused strategies, when education and career are accounted
for gender differences in coping style disappear.
Social
Support
A social-support network is associated with reduced perceived work-home
conflict, increased job and life satisfaction, enhanced perceptions of
control, and fewer stress-related health problems. Women are more likely
to seek social support than men and tend to demonstrate greater health
benefits from social support.
Personality. Personality characteristics, such as overall emotionality
and moodiness, influence how we react to stressors. For example, those
with a poor sense of self-efficacy tend to doubt themselves, leading to
reductions in effort and simply giving up when times get hard. Theory
and research suggest that many professional women suffer from "imposter
syndrome" in which they believe they are intellectual frauds, consider
themselves less competent than they really are, don't internalize their
successes, and fear being "found out." The lowered levels of
self-efficacy inherent in the imposter phenomenon make afflicted women
more vulnerable to the negative health effects of stress.
We've seen
that women are more prone to stress-related health problems simply because
they encounter a multitude of stressors in both work and home environments.
Couple the stressors with limited social support--most women scientists
have few such resources--and the imposter phenomenon, and it's easy to
see why academic women often are an unhealthy lot. The academy presents
women scientists with a variety of obstacles, barriers, and stresses.
But these challenges don't have to harm your health.
What Can
We Do?
Although GWSH presents reduced workload (or "job sharing" for
academic positions) as a potential solution, job sharing and other part-time
arrangements are unrealistic for many academic women and are associated
with low wages, reduced benefits, few actual reductions in workload, and
few opportunities for advancement. Nevertheless, the research on gender
differences in work stress and health suggests a variety of solutions:
- Social
Support. Given the benefits associated with social support, this
is an essential avenue for assisting academic women in managing their
lives. Formal sources of support such as mentoring programs, as well
as informal support groups like brown-bag lunch groups and e-mail discussion
lists, can provide academic women with peers with whom they can vent,
seek assistance, and commiserate, easing perceptions of isolation.
- Coping
Style. This is an individualized, personal solution. Reevaluate
your coping style, and try to use problem-focused and positive emotion-focused
strategies. It's a challenge, but adjusting your outlook will change
how you react to stressors and help prevent them from harming your health.
The resources listed at the end of the article will help you gain perspective
and develop healthy academic habits.
- Seek
Assistance With Domestic Work. Lighten your domestic load by hiring
someone to do the housecleaning, using a laundry service, or simply
recognizing that sanity is more important than a spotless house. Live
with additional clutter and ask your partner to lend a hand. If you
can do it without raising your stress level further, expect your partner
to take on an equal (or more) share of domestic duties.
- Make
Time for You. It sounds like a cliché, and an unrealistic
one at that--how can you find time for yourself when juggling a 60-hour
workweek and all the personal demands on your time? Believe it or not,
20 minutes a day of solitude will make a lot of difference in stress
relief and mental balance. Read a non-work-related book, write in a
journal, complete a crossword, or just stare out the window. Exercise
several times each week to release stress and increase your resistance
to stress and stress-related health problems.
- Support
Family-Friendly University Policies. Perceptions
of control and flexibility are essential to managing stress in healthful
ways. The American Association of University Professors' (AAUP's) Statement
of Principles on Family Responsibilities and Academic Work makes several
recommendations to enhance flexibility and control in managing competing
work-family demands. AAUP recommends that new parents have the option
to stop the tenure clock for 1 year or, more importantly, engage in
active service with modified duties (i.e., reduced teaching load, enabling
new parents to keep up with their research as they determine how to
best juggle their new responsibilities). Lobby your university to adopt
these principles and to develop campus-based child-care centers to enable
faculty to coordinate their work-home lives.
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