The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Social Roles, Psychosocial Factors and Health in Venezuelan Working Women

Social Roles, Psychosocial Factors and Health in Venezuelan Working Women
Social Roles, Psychosocial Factors and Health in Venezuelan Working Women

Increases in women's labour force-participation, including that of women with children, have led researchers to study the health effects of women's multiple roles. Recent investigations have shown that the specific qualities of women's social roles as well as other psychosocial variables such as social support, distribution of household responsibilities and work-family relationship can affect women's health.

The present study aims to explore the relationships between sociodemographic and psychosocial variables on self-perception of physical and mental health in Venezuelan working women at different occupational levels.

Four studies were carried out using different methodologies, designs and testing additive and interactive models. Study 1 considered only secretaries (n=122), Study 2 included working women from different occupational levels and a group of housewives (n=417). Both studies were cross-sectional. In order to test the potential causal influence of psychosocial variables on self-reported physical and mental health, a longitudinal study was carried out (n=130). To enrich the results obtained from the three quantitative studies, the final study was qualitative (n=32).

Only the level of education and having pre-school children turned out to be health predictors. In general, women with partners reported better health than women without partners. The characteristics of women's social roles were the most important psychosocial variables considering the main and interactive effects that either put a strain on, or enhance women's health and well-being. Supervisor and co-workers support as well as the perception of job control were the most important protective aspects. Social relations at work played a fundamental role on mental health, moderating important work-related stressing conditions such as dissatisfaction with the salary/lack of recognition and promotion. Marital satisfaction was directly related to women's perception of health. Job control and social integration protected working women from stress related to marital conflict. None of the psychosocial factors studied for the mother role aced as protectors against the effects of this role on women's health. The results showed that integral approaches, which simultaneously consider work and family spheres, are required for the comprehension of working women's health.

University of Southampton
Feldman-Chaberman, Lya
bcc93e73-b552-43f5-b028-bdd3b4a79997
Feldman-Chaberman, Lya
bcc93e73-b552-43f5-b028-bdd3b4a79997

Feldman-Chaberman, Lya (2001) Social Roles, Psychosocial Factors and Health in Venezuelan Working Women. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

Increases in women's labour force-participation, including that of women with children, have led researchers to study the health effects of women's multiple roles. Recent investigations have shown that the specific qualities of women's social roles as well as other psychosocial variables such as social support, distribution of household responsibilities and work-family relationship can affect women's health.

The present study aims to explore the relationships between sociodemographic and psychosocial variables on self-perception of physical and mental health in Venezuelan working women at different occupational levels.

Four studies were carried out using different methodologies, designs and testing additive and interactive models. Study 1 considered only secretaries (n=122), Study 2 included working women from different occupational levels and a group of housewives (n=417). Both studies were cross-sectional. In order to test the potential causal influence of psychosocial variables on self-reported physical and mental health, a longitudinal study was carried out (n=130). To enrich the results obtained from the three quantitative studies, the final study was qualitative (n=32).

Only the level of education and having pre-school children turned out to be health predictors. In general, women with partners reported better health than women without partners. The characteristics of women's social roles were the most important psychosocial variables considering the main and interactive effects that either put a strain on, or enhance women's health and well-being. Supervisor and co-workers support as well as the perception of job control were the most important protective aspects. Social relations at work played a fundamental role on mental health, moderating important work-related stressing conditions such as dissatisfaction with the salary/lack of recognition and promotion. Marital satisfaction was directly related to women's perception of health. Job control and social integration protected working women from stress related to marital conflict. None of the psychosocial factors studied for the mother role aced as protectors against the effects of this role on women's health. The results showed that integral approaches, which simultaneously consider work and family spheres, are required for the comprehension of working women's health.

Text
815610.pdf - Version of Record
Available under License University of Southampton Thesis Licence.
Download (13MB)

More information

Published date: 2001

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 464458
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/464458
PURE UUID: 7d93a3b5-a7f5-4739-9504-483fd248c1d7

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 23:39
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 19:32

Export record

Contributors

Author: Lya Feldman-Chaberman

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×