Response To Undesirable Life Events

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usband and Wife Differences in Response to Undesirable Life Events* RAND D. CONGER FREDERICK O. LORENZ Iowa State University GLEN H. ELDER, JR. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill RONALD L. SIMONS XIAOJIA GE Iowa State University Journal of Health and Social Behavior 1993, Vol. 34 (March):71-88 In the present study of 451 married couples living in the rural midwest, gender differences were examined in reports of exposure and vulnerability to specific types of^ undesirable life events. Consistent with expectations derived from either a social structural or identity perspective, the results demonstrated that men are more likely than women to report exposure to and to be distressed by work and financial events. Women,…show more content…
Women, on the other hand, by observation or instruction, learn to take greater responsibility than men for providing nurturance in relationships, raising children, and caring for a home. Thoits (1987, 1991) proposes an extension of this social structural perspective by suggesting that, as a result of their experiences, men and women typically have divergent selfconcepts (see also Stryker and Serpe 1982). She hypothesizes that, on average, they develop different role identities which determine expected rights, responsibilities, and priorities in multiple life domains such as work and family. Stressors that threaten these identities are most likely to create distress for either men or women. If men, for example, are most likely to identify with the worker/family provider role, they will be most distressed by problems such as economic reversals. Conversely, if women most identify with a family/caregiverrole, they will be most vulnerable to negative events in that area of life. The important point here is that either an identity or social structural approach to understanding differential response to negative life events links reactivity to the…show more content…
These theoretical interests necessitated a sample of negative events related to work and finances as well as crises related to important social networks (e.g., friends, nuclear family, extended family). We used the research by Kessler and McLeod (1984) as a guide in developing negative event categories. The first four event types were concerned with negative changes that directly involved the respondents. The first of these involved 77 job disruptions (four items) during the past year such as being fired, laid off, or demoted. Difficulties with work were considered separately from financial problems (eight items) which included losses in income or debt problems during the past year. It was particularly important to consider these two areas of change individually as many of the respondents were self-employed and experienced financial problems unrelated to loss of employment. These two categories of events include those items indicative of income loss in the Kessler and McLeod (1984) study. For completeness and consistency with earlier studies (e.g., Kessler and McLeod 1984; Thoits 1987), we also determined whether the respondent had experienced a serious illness or injury during the past

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