Scott Schieman

The Sense of Mastery as a Mediator and Moderator in the Association Between Economic Hardship and Health in Late Life

Objectives: This study examines the ways in which the sense of mastery modifies the association between economic hardship experienced at different life stages and late-life depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms. Methods: Using data from a sample of 1,167 older adults, ordinary least squares regression techniques were used to estimate the main and mastery-contingent effects of economic hardship. Results: Results underscore the dual role of the sense of mastery in the stress process. First, mastery mediates the effects of both earlier- and later-life economic hardships on elders’ current physical and mental health. Second, mastery moderates the health impact of economic hardship, although those patterns depend on the period of economic hardship and health outcome. Discussion: Integrating the stress process model and a life course perspective, the authors argue that to fully understand protective capacity of psychosocial resources, stressors encountered at different life stages should be taken into account.

The Nature of Work and the Stress of Higher Status.

Are occupational and work conditions associated with work-to-home conflict? If so, do those associations vary by gender? Among a sample of adults in Toronto, Canada, we found that men and women in higher-status occupations reported higher levels of work-to-home conflict than workers in lower-status jobs. In addition, we observed higher levels of work-to-home conflict among workers who are self-employed and among those with more job authority, demands, involvement, and longer hours. The only significant gender-contingent effect was found for nonroutine work, which is associated positively with work-to-home conflict among men but not women. Higher levels of job demands, involvement, and hours among individuals in higher-status occupations significantly contribute to occupation-based differences in work-to-home conflict. Moreover, despite some overlap, these work conditions have largely independent associations with work-to-home conflict. Results generally support the “stress of higher status” hypothesis among both women and men. Although higher-status positions yield many rewards, such positions are not impervious to inter-role stress, and this stress may offset those rewards.

Age and anger.

Are older people less angry? I propose that age differences in roles, personal and social circumstances, the sense of control, health, and socio-emotional outlook explain the association. I use data from a 1981 representative sample of 951 physically disabled individuals from Southwestern Ontario, Canada and a 1996 national probability sample of 1,450 U.S. respondents--the General Social Survey (GSS). Both surveys show a negative association between age and anger. In the Ontario sample older people are more likely to occupy widowhood and retirement roles, live with fewer people, have less interpersonal estrangement, and have fewer life events; these characteristics explain their lower anger. Also, were it not for their lower control and worse health older people in the Ontario sample would report even lower anger. In the GSS sample, age differences in household composition, satisfaction with family life and financial circumstances, perceived time pressures in daily life, religious involvement, and socio-emotional outlook contribute to the lower anger among older adults. Collectively, my findings show that the psychosocial and structural environment--experienced differently by age--influences the risk of anger.

Age, Disability, and the Sense of Mastery

Are there age differences in the sense of mastery, independent of physical disability? Do age and disability have joint effects on mastery? We propose that both age and disability have independent and synergistic effects on the sense of mastery or control. We analyze data from a large community sample of disabled individuals and a comparison of nondisabled respondents. Our study finds that, indeed, disabled and older respondents report lower levels of mastery. Moreover, the influence of disability on mastery is conditioned by age--and the interaction differs across age groups. In addition, our findings suggest that disabled individuals are disadvantaged in the status variables traditionally associated with greater control. When we adjust for these status variables, we reduce the strength of a quadratic age by disability interaction term considerably. The patterns we find in mastery among those individuals in their middle-years suggest to us that disabled and nondisabled individuals may live out their lives with differential opportunities for attainment and that this inequality has implications for their sense of mastery. Our findings reveal complex nonlinear and synergistic associations among age, disability, and the sense of mastery and raise provocative questions for future research.

The personal and social links between age and self-reported empathy

In this study we examine the relationship between age and self-reported empathy. Using data from a 1985 community sample of 1,567 individuals from southwestern Ontario we document a strong negative association between age and empathy. The results show that age-associated patterns in socioeconomic status, widowhood, physical impairment, and dispositional attributes contribute to more than 65 percent of the total negative association between age and empathy. Conversely, a more positive balance of interpersonal relationships and greater religious involvement among older adults conceals about 20 percent of the size of the age-empathy association; that is, those factors tend to conceal older peoples otherwise lower self-reported level of empathy. Other findings show that women report significantly more empathy and that the gender gap closes at older ages. Also, higher education significantly moderates the negative age-empathy association. Collectively our findings highlight the emotional significance of age-associated personal and social factors over the life course.

Statuses, Roles, and the Sense of Mattering

Individuals with a sense of mattering perceive they are acknowledged and relevant in the lives of other people. Using data from a representative sample of adults age eighteen to fifty-five from Toronto, Canada, who are employed in the paid labor force, we examine the effects of statuses, roles, and occupational conditions on mattering. Being female, having children, and holding jobs with more autonomy, complexity, fulfillment, and supervision duties enriches the conviction of mattering. Relationship and parental strains are related negatively to mattering, which conceals the positive effects of spousal-partner and parental roles. Results show gender-contingent effects: women in our sample derive greater benefits for mattering from education, but they also are affected more negatively by work-to-home conflict. Conversely, in our findings, men gain more from having children and being involved in a relationship, but they are also affected more negatively by relationship strains. Other results show that the positive relationship of age with job autonomy and complexity suppresses its negative association with mattering. Collectively, these results add to knowledge about the social-structural influences on the self-concept.

Home-to-Work Conflict, Work Qualities, and Emotional Distress

Among a representative sample of employed men and women in Toronto, Canada, home-to-work conflict is associated positively with anxiety and depression. Two hypotheses propose work qualities as moderators. The double disadvantage hypothesis predicts that home-to-work conflict is more distressing when work is nonautonomous, routine, or noxious. The intrusion on job status/rewards hypothesis predicts that conflict is more distressing when work is autonomous, nonroutine, or nonnoxious. Results show that the association between home-to-work conflict and distress is stronger (1) among people in more autonomous jobs; (2) among women in routinized jobs; and (3) among men in noxious environments.

Work–Family Role Blurring and Work–Family Conflict: The Moderating Influence of Job Resources and Job Demands

Using border theory and the job demands resources model, we examine the work antecedents of work–family role blurring and its consequences for work-to-family conflict in a national sample of U.S. workers. Job predictors of role blurring include jobs with more authority, excessive work pressures, schedule control, and decision-making latitude. Role blurring is associated with higher levels of work-to-family conflict, though the strength of this association is contingent on workers’ access and exposure to certain job resources and job demands. Specifically, the association is stronger among workers reporting excessive pressures, and weaker among those with decision-making latitude and some schedule control.

Education and the activation, course, and management of anger.

Using data from the 1996 General Social Survey, I examine educations association with the activation, course, and management of anger. I argue that education--as a source of stratification (status) and as a personal resource (human capital)--organizes the conditions that influence anger-related processes. In analyses of anger activation, education is associated with lower odds of family-related anger. The well educated have fewer children and more income--factors associated with a lower risk of family anger. Conversely, education is associated with higher odds of work-related anger, but income and personal control account for that association. In analyses of the course of anger, I document a nonlinear association between education and anger duration. Adjustment for the sense of control--which is negatively associated with anger duration--sharpens that parabolic association. Education is positively associated with perceived appropriateness of anger and negatively associated with the display of anger. In both cases, adjustment for control accounts for educations effect. The sense of control also suppresses educations significant positive effect on anger processing. In analyses of anger management, education increases the odds of cognitive flexibility and problem solving, but its effect on communication depends on the sense of control. In sum, education organizes personal and social circumstances that influence anger-related processes.

The Relationship between Age and Depressive Symptoms: A Test of Competing Explanatory and Suppression Influences

Objective: The objective is to examine competing explanatory and suppression influences on a negative, linear association between age and depressive symptoms. Methods:Two samples were used: a community sample of physically disabled individuals and a comparison sample matched on age, sex, and area of residence. Results:Fewer economic hardships and fewer experiences of negative interpersonal exchanges among older disabled and nondisabled respondents account for the negative relationship between age and depressive symptoms. Higher scores on a composite measure of religiosity among older disabled adults also account for part of the negative age effect. Conversely, a lower sense of mastery among older respondents in both samples suppresses the size of the negative age slope. Discussion:Findings are discussed in terms of stress process and socioemotional selectivity theories, which predict that personal and social arrangements influence the experience of emotions differentially across the life course.