Donna Dempster-McClain

Successful Aging: A Life-Course Perspective on Women's Multiple Roles and Health

Panel data from a sample of 313 women who were wives and mothers in 1956 and were interviewed both in 1956 and in 1986 are used to consider the pathways that lead to health and social integration. Possible relationships were explored between the number, duration, timing, and episodes of various nonfamily roles throughout adult-hood and subsequent health and multiple-role occupancy. It was found that occupying multiple roles in 1956, participating in volunteer work on an intermittent basis, and belonging to a club or organization were positively related to various measures of health and that occupying multiple roles in 1956, as well as doing volunteer work, was positively related to occupying multiple roles in 1986.

Social Integration and Longevity: An Event History Analysis of Women's Roles and Resilience

This paper investigates the implications of multiple roles for the longevity of women. Drawing on a two-wave 30-year panel study of 427 wives and mothers in upstate New York we use event history techniques to test the effects of both the number and the nature of roles on the duration of womens lives. We find that social integration defined by the number of roles occupied promotes longevity but that one form of integration--membership in a voluntary organization--is especially salutary. (EXCERPT)

Caregiving and Women's Well-being: A Life Course Approach

This study demonstrates the utility of incorporating a life course, role context approach in investigations of the ties between particular roles and psychological well-being, using the links between womens caregiving and well-being as a case in point. We draw on panel data from a random sample of 293 women interviewed in 1956 and 1986, considering both current role occupancy and the duration of caregiving as well as a number of factors that may moderate the effects of caregiving on well-being. We find, using ordinary least squares regression, that the effects of caregiving on womens emotional health are moderated by their previous psychological well-being, with caregivers with high prior well-being reporting high subsequent well-being. Other moderators are previous social integration (in the form of religiosity and multiple-role involvements) and other nonfamily roles (worker and volunteer) currently occupied. What women bring to caregiving (in terms of their previous social integration and psychological well-being) shapes its significance for their emotional health. Moreover, the duration and timing of caregiving in womens lives also relate to its effects on their well-being. These findings point to the importance of examining the impacts of particular social roles, such as caregiving, in the context of other roles and resources.

Employed Parents: Role Strain, Work Time, and Preferences for Working Less.

This research, analyzing data from the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey, examines the work-time preferences of 224 dual-earner couples with children aged 12 and under. Approached from the perspective of role strain, the study hypothesizes that six factors are related to an employed parents stated preference for fewer work hours: gender, family obligations, current work hours, perceived work-family interference, occupational status, andjob flexibility. Multivariate (logit) analysis techniques reveal that gender is significantly related to work-hour preferences for both self and spouse, with the wish of wives to work fewer hours endorsed also by husbands who want their wives to work fewer hours. In addition, actual work time and gender interact such that mothers working full-time prefer to reduce their work week. As expected, perceived work-family interference is related to a desire for a reduced work schedule for both self and spouse.

Social Role Identities Among Older Adults in a Continuing Care Retirement Community

Basing their hypotheses on identity and life-course theories, the authors examine the social role identities of a group of older adults (N = 92) both before and after their move into a new continuing care retirement community (CCRC) to investigate whether this transition is linked to changes in social role identities. The congruence between actually enacting a role and choosing it as a role identity varies with the role. Current role behaviors and satisfaction predict role identity for two institutionalized, public roles (volunteer and church/synagogue member) but are less related to two more private roles (parent and friend). Cluster analysis reveals a typology of three discrete groups, based on social role identities: an involved group with a high number of role identities, a group focused on family roles identities, and a group focused on the friend role identity. The social role identities of the three groups changed in different ways after moving to the CCRC.

MOTHERHOOD, MULTIPLE ROLES, AND MATERNAL WELL-BEING: Women of the 1950s

This study examined the effects of social integration (number of roles occupied) on the psychological well-being of American women who were wives and mothers of young children in the 1950s. The sample, drawn from a 1956 data archive, consisted of 358 married mothers with children under age 13 who lived in upstate New York. The authors focused on two measures of psychological well-being, self-esteem and general life satisfaction, and three measures of womens subjective appraisal of the mother role. Using hierarchical multiple regression and controlling for potentially important individual and structural variables, the authors found that the number of nonfamily roles beyond those of wife and mother that this sample of women occupied was positively related to both self-esteem and general life satisfaction and was negatively related to feelings of detachment from the mothering role. These effects remained regardless of whether or not women were in the labor force and regardless of their social class. The paid worker role per se was not related to self-esteem or general life satisfaction but was related to feelings of maternal discontent and maternal inadequacy.

The Effects of Childhood Family Stress on Women's Depressive Symptoms

This study uses a life course approach to observe the interaction between stressful childhood events and recent undesirable events to predict depressive symptoms in women. Data are from a community sample (N = 205) of adult daughters from the Cornell Womens Roles Project, aged 26-58 years. Results indicate that women who experienced mild stressors during childhood are less likely to have depressive responses to undesirable events than are those who did not have stressful family backgrounds. This buffering influence appears to be partially mediated through a womans belief in her control over external events. In the absence of childhood strains, a close father—daughter relationship during childhood may also teach women protective mastery skills. Overall, findings suggest that womens differing depressive responses to undesirable events follow a developmental pathway beginning with early childhood experiences. We suggest that the milder childhood stressors measured in this study stimulated an adaptive family environment from which these women were able to garner life course coping strategies.

Moonlighting Husbands A Life-Cycle Perspective

This study examines the extent and correlates of moonlighting at various stages in the life course for employed husbands (N = 2,118) in the United States in the mid-1970s. Using data from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1976-1977 waves), the study found that 21% of the husbands held two jobs, a figure substantially higher than official estimates. In estimating the likelihood of moonlighting, using a range of individual, family, and job characteristics, three hypotheses are tested. The first two, drawn from the “life-cycle squeeze” literature, suggest differences in the likelihood of moonlighting at various stages of the life cycle and in conjunction with variations in the wage rate of the primary job. The third hypothesis relates moonlighting to a sporadic work history. Findings reveal that there are indeed variations in the incidence of moonlighting over the life cycle. Moreover, the effects of wage rate and work history interact with life-cycle stage, suggesting that the factors related to moonlighting vary across stages of mens lives.