ROLE STRAIN AMONG MARRIED COLLEGE WOMEN Dissertation for the Degree of Ph. D. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY MARY JANE S. VAN METER 1976 :1 III I II III I III III III 11171111 I V “B. R A f" a 1293 10149 This is to certify that the thesis entitled Role Strain Among Married College Women presented by MaryJane S. Van Meter has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for £11.12. degree in FamilLEcology .4 ,4 97/7 . ,1: ,- / . ”(n/4 .7” x,_ s e) _ '/ Major professor 7" Date Feb. 13, 1976 0-7639 M22594 ' A” “In“ t I 11:34:33 - wv Tum“. Afi’ [2230“! ’0’} S ,' 34"}? __._._ 1 I‘ll-lillllil lili'l.llll|l||nllltl.l III'IIII'IIIIIII Illililvl ABSTRACT ROLE STRAIN AMONG MARRIED COLLEGE WOMEN By Mary Jane S. Van Meter Married employed women have been the subject of much pub- licity, research, and discussion as the number of women in the labor force who are married and have families continues to climb. Married college women in training for career roles, however, have not been studied to the same extent. Involvement in demanding roles outside the home is a concern of both groups, yet the married college woman may be experiencing the stresses of multiple, and possibly conflictual, roles for the first time. Role strain, i.e., the felt difficulty in meeting role obli- gations, is the focus of this study. A role strain scale, designed with the experiences of the married college woman in mind, is devel- oped, pretested, and employed. Factors which may influence the amount of role strain the married college woman will experience are hypothesized to be: (1) the stage of the family career, and (2) the amount of perceived personal and family resources available. Whether role strain influ- ences college graduation and both personal and marital satisfaction is also hypothesized and analyzed. Mary Jane S. Van Meter In addition to the hypothesized relationships between role strain and the variables noted, certain objectives were also inves- tigated. Among the stated objectives were the specification of particular personal or family resources or characteristics which influenced role strain and/or college degree completion. The study was conducted through the use of questionnaires mailed to all graduates (1964-l974), inactive students, and some completing students of the home economics department of a large, urban university. Although the active students and graduates responded in higher proportions (45-71%), the difficulty of locating and receiving returns from the inactive students produced an over- all return rate of 32%, or 354 usable responses. Of this number, 133 were married during the last two years of their student expe- rience. Therefore, the investigation of variables in this project is based on the responses of 133 married college women. The hypotheses were tested by the use of analysis of vari- ance, correlation, and multiple regression techniques. Major findings were: 1. Stage of the family career has no significant influence on the amount of role strain the married college woman experiences. 2. Among the personal resources (health, need for achieve- ment, and management skills) and family resources (emotional, physical, and financial types of support) perceived by the married woman college student, the most significant influence on role strain was the emotional support she felt from her husband and family. Mary Jane S. Van Meter 3. There is no significant relationship between role strain and degree completion. 4. Role strain has a negative relationship to total per- sonal and marital satisfaction (-.4l4 p < .OOl). Comparisons of groups of married women students with low and those with high role strain indicated some important differ- ences. Establishing priorities among role responsibilities was used as a role management technique by both groups, yet the low role strain women considered the family role most important to a greater degree than did high role strain women. Furthermore, the low role strain women perceived their partner's agreement with their role priorities to a much greater extent and experienced higher marital satisfaction while in school. The greater satisfaction with child care arrangements, the perception of adequate study space, and the feeling of being in good health were characteristics which differentiated low role strain women students from others. Conclusions are drawn pertaining to socialization techniques, further research, educational efforts, and the counseling of married women students. ROLE STRAIN AMONG MARRIED COLLEGE WOMEN By Mary Jane S. Van Meter A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY College of Human Ecology l976 @ Copyright by MARY JANE S. VAN METER l976 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are eSpecially due to Dr. Esther D. Callard, Chair- man, Department of Family and Consumer Resources at Wayne State University, who inspired this study and assisted throughout, from implementation to interpretation. I am particularly indebted to Sam Agronow, Research Assistant, Family and Consumer Resources Department for his availability and help in research design and computer assistance. Throughout my studies, Professor Margaret J. Bubolz has illuminated my understanding of family ecology. Her competence in this field, in addition to her support and willingness to help, were relied upon heavily and greatly appreciated. Professor Eugene H. Jacobson was particularly helpful in sharpening instrument design and study analysis. I have been very grateful for his perspective of the family, his insight, and his assistance during the course of my studies. Professor Beatrice Paolucci and Professor Vera Borosage were preeminient from the out- set for their interest and encouragement. I am keenly aware that the culminating stresses might have been unbearable in strain produced, were it not for the accommoda- tion and support of Ronald, Bruce, and Sarah Van Meter. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES . LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF APPENDICES Chapter I. INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem . . . Overall Purpose and Focus of the Study . Assumptions . . . . . Conceptual Definitions Hypotheses Objectives II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Studies Related to Married Women College Students Related Studies on Married Employed Women : III. CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT . Introduction . . Role Conflict and Role Strain . A Systems Perspective of Roles Family Career and Role Strain . Personal Resources Family Resources . Role Strain Resolution . Role Strain and Satisfaction IV. DESIGN OF THE STUDY . Methodology. . Development of the Instument Page vii viii —‘ \DSOVVON-J ll Chapter Page Measurement of Variables . . . . . . . . . 40 Role Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Personal Resources . . . . . . . . . . 45 Family Resources . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Life Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . 47 Marital Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . 48 Satisfaction . . . . . . . . 48 Stage of the Family Career . . . . . . . 48 Child Index . . . . . . . . . . 49 Methods of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . 49 The Population . . . . . . 53 Sampling Procedure and Data Collection . . . . 54 Nonrespondents . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . 59 Description of Subjects . . . . . . . . . 59 Characteristics of Inactives . . . . . . . 62 Role Strain Scores . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Tests of Hypotheses . . . . . . . . 64 Findings Related to Objectives . . . . . . . 8l VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . 96 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . l02 Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lO7 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . T37 iv Table NOW-kw“) 10. ll. 12. l3. l4. l5. LIST OF TABLES Summary Table of Variables and Their Measurement . Summary Table of Hypotheses and Tests Used . Questionnaire Response Marital Status as a Student in FAC Department . Reasons Cited for Attending College Employment Status by Child Index and Role Index Summary Data and Analysis of Variance for Stage of Family Career by Age of Oldest Child and Role ' ’ Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary Data and Analysis of Variance for Stage of Family Career by'Number of Years Married and Role Strain . Summary of Significant Steps in the Regression Analy- sis of Resources Influencing Role Strain Analysis of Variance Summary Table of Mean Role Strain Scores by Degree Status . Summary of Significant Steps in the Multiple Regres- sion Analysis Influencing Satisfaction Scores . Comparison of Role Strain Groups on Agreement on Role Priorities, Partner's Attitude, and Guilt Percent Employed Among Married Women Students with Low and High Role Strain . Partner's Occupation Among Role Strain Groups . Differences Between Role Strain Groups on How Often Things Went Well with Partner While in School . V Page 50 52 56 57 6O 62 66 67 7l 74 78 80 82 83 84 Table 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Analysis of Variance Results of Grade Point Average by Role Strain Group . . Differences Between Role Strain Groups on Establish- ing Priorities . Summary of Significant Steps in the Multiple Regres- sion Analysis of Variables Influencing Graduation (Bachelor's Degree) Distribution of Bachelor's Graduates by Years to Complete Program and Amount of Role Strain Distribution of Master's Graduates by Years to Com- plete Program and Amount of Role Strain Description of Subjects . Parental Status During Last Year of School Average Age at Completion or at Leaving Program by Degree Status . . . . . . . . . vi Page 86 87 93 94 95 135 136 136 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Hypothesized Relationships in Which Role Strain Is Both Dependent and Independent Variable . . . . 25 2. Role Strain by Degree Program . . . . . . . . 65 vii LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A. B C. D Pretest Instrument Introductory Letter Final Questionnaire Description of Subjects . viii Page 108 114 116 134 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Numerous contemporary forces are cooperating to bring about changes to the traditional conception of woman's role. While more opportunities are open to women today, it is evident that they may be restrained from taking advantage of them by their own and others' attitudes about woman's age-old duties and responsibilities to home and family. The postponement of marriage, as indicated by the higher age of first marriage (Troll, 1975:73), and the decreasing numbers and rate of marriage in 1974 (U. S. Department, H.E.W., l975z8), have left many young women with more life choices in terms of further education, wider selection of vocations, and the pursuit of them while in their twenties. The prevalence and acceptability of these options may be due in part to the press given the Women's Movement. Secondly, the availability and reliability of modern con- traceptives have influenced families to have fewer children in a shorter span of time than their forebears. By the time the majority of women today are 32 years of age their youngest child is in school, leaving some 35 years of active adulthood and considerable time to spend on other activities beyond the home (Nye, 1974:10). This tendency, along with improved health and nutrition which have been thought to increase life expectancy for women, has meant an increase in the incidence of employment of middle-aged women such that the profile of the average woman worker today is age 39 and married (Mulligan, 1973). Yet, in spite of these advances in the so-called liberation of women, there is considerable evidence to support the view that women are held back from the pursuit of individual achievement out- side of marriage and home due to their own and others' ideology about “women's role" (Poloma & Garland, 1971; Lipmen-Blumen, 1972; Kaley, 1971). College women are preparing themselves for future work with the expectation of combining family and housewife activities with regular employment (El-Khawas & Bisconti, 1974; Epstein & Bronzaft, 1972). For many married women who plan future careers, college attendance is the preliminary experience of dual roles inside and outside the home. While much has been written about the effect of woman's employment on the family, little attention has been given the dual roles of family person and student. In recent years, many colleges and universities have expe- rienced increasing numbers of married women remaining in and return- ing to school. While many young women choose to marry before, or during college, many older women with families are now returning to the college campus. Thus, increasing numbers of women are opting for concurrent multiple roles: spouse, student, parent, and additionally in many cases, the worker or career role. The diverse demands and responsibilities which these roles encompass is likely to present some role conflicts. The concept of role strain has been defined as the felt difficulty in fulfilling role demands (Goode, 1960:483). Turner (1970:208) adds that the actor feels unjustly under pressure to play a role that one does not believe in. Most common is the expe- rience of being unable to perform a role adequately because of the conflicting demands of other roles. Prominent in Goode's theory of role strain is the idea that an individual plays many roles and therefore, has many role rela- tionships. Since most people play multiple roles, role strain is a normal experience. Any student is a member of many social systems but for most young people other roles are subordinate to the role of student. The married woman student has an equally, if not more important, role as wife. In addition, she may be mother and worker. The presence and importance of additional roles such as student, may constitute difficulty in meeting all of the demands of the role of wife, particularly if her husband or family do not agree with her educational or career aspirations. For the married woman college student, the length of time to complete her degree, and whether or not she does, may indicate the priority she has given to the student role in her life and the extent to which this role provides a source of significant stress to her. The degree of satisfaction with marriage and life in gen- eral may indicate the importance these more personal areas of her life play in allocating priority status to the student role. Thus, achieving college graduation, and marital and life satisfaction may be related to role strain which has not been resolved in some way by the individual. The differences in behavior in regard to multiple roles and the extent to which conflict is felt are a function of the inter- action between different personalities and role expectations (Getzels & Guba, 1954). Since individual capabilities and capac- ities are a function of personaltiy, there is a need to identify the personal resources which sustain women in multiple and diverse roles. Married women who successfully combine school and marriage are expected to have extra motivation to handle all the necessary work (Doty, 1966). A high need for achievement would appear to be an important motivator keeping a married woman in the student role. Additionally, health and managerial skills might lessen the extent to which conflicts between these roles might exist. Beyond the personal resources or internal supports which provide the motivation and the stamina to persist under the responsi- bilities of diverse roles, particularly roles outside the home, numerous studies have pointed to the need for the cooperation and support of the husband (Astin, 1969; Feldman, 1973; Lewis, 1969; Mulligan, 1973; Poloma, 1972). In fact, the slightly higher attrition rates of women graduate students than those of men gradu- ate students have been largely explained by the lack of encourage- ment and by the actual discouragement experienced by women graduate students for their career plans (Harris, 1970:286). Cooperation and support from family members may take various forms. An important aid for the woman with multiple roles would be actual physical assistance in homemaking and housekeeping, the tra- ditionally feminine responsibilities. Lacking the actual participa- tion of family members in these tasks, the financial ability to hire these jobs done by outside help would be an additional support. The college expense of tuition, books, and other fees con- stitute a primary financial need. While financial assistance has been found to be an important factor allowing some married women to take on the student role (Hembrough, 1966:164), it has not been indicated among other samples (Doty, 1966:172). This characteristic appears dependent upon the sample studied. The format for presentation of this study follows much the same course as the study itself. The study was conceptualized because of a personal interest in, and an acquaintance with, the literature on women holding dual roles. For this reason, the review of literature contains only those studies reviewed which are rele- vant to women holding dual roles, both married women college stu- dents and married employed women. The conceptual development follows in Chapter III in which the theoretical literature pertaining to role concepts is reviewed and integrated with available data on women holding multiple roles. The design of the study and the results of the study comprise Chapters IV and V. The final chapter includes a summary of the study, a discussion of the findings, and their implications. The perspective of human ecosystems, in which the relation- ship of man and environment is significant, is a basic considera- tion of this study. When the family is viewed as an ecosystem, the flow of energy is an important aspect of its organization and its functions. While this study is concerned primarily with one member of the family unit, the kinds of support, i.e., energy, which that member perceives as coming from other members is viewed as influencing both the participation and performance in multiple roles. Overall Purpose and Focus of the Study The particular purpose of this study will be to measure role strain and how it affects the married woman's participation in the dual roles of spouse and student. First, the possible influences upon role strain will be investigated. These are stage of the family career and the per- ceived family and personal resources. External support, primarily from the family, which includes their emotional support, physical assistance in helping with household tasks, and financial aid, are considered as family resources. Personal resources, or internal supports, include health, need for achievement, and managerial skills. Though this study includes no objective measurement of either family or personal resources, and relies solely on the respon- dent's perceptions, these felt supports may be most significant to multiple role adjustment. Both family resources and personal resources may be factors which diminish role strain. A deliberate focus of this investigation is to identify those perceived resources which facilitate the married woman student to carry out both roles without excessive role strain and to achieve both marital satisfaction and a personal life satisfaction. Once a measure of the amount of role strain is assessed, it will serve as both a dependent variable, when compared with the stage of the family career and the perceived internal and external supports available to the woman; and as the main independent varia- ble when examining college completion and marital and personal satisfaction. Assumptions Some important assumptions underlie this study: 1. Any married woman in college is likely to experience some role strain. 2. Married women will be able to recall their attitudes , and experiences of their college student days. Conceptual Definitions The following definitions of terms are used in this study: Position refers to a category of persons collectively recognized by a common attribute. Age, sex, marital status, school and work status will define the positions of female, wife, student, worker, in this study. Bgle_is the set of prescriptions defining what the behavior of a position member should be (Thomas & Biddle, 1966:29). In this study, role refers to the expected behavior of a woman who is in the position of wife, who attends college as a student, and who may be a mother, and/or an employee. Role Strain is the condition of awareness of an inability to meet the demands of all of one's roles. It is experienced by a married female college student who holds at least two major roles (wife and student) concurrently and who feels unequal to the demands of one or more roles, or feels unjustly under pressure to play a role which she feels is unnecessary or not important to her. Role strain resolution techniques are methods employed to reduce the perception of discomfort in the problem of inadequate resources for multiple roles or that of incompatible expectations for a single role. A method likely to be used by married women students is taking courses as a part-time student. Role priorities refers to a hierarchy of commitment among roles based on the valuing of the individual married woman college student. That role which receives one's primary commitment may be referred to as a salient or central or major role. Family resources are the supports (financial, emotional, and physical) which a family of orientation and/or family of pro- creation may provide for the married woman college student which assist her in pursuing her college degree. Personal resources are those internal motivations and per- sonal abilities to manage one's time, energy. and skills as well as that of others, and a state of health which allows the married woman student to maintain multiple roles. Family career in this study refers to the general course of the family through all of its developmental aspects, from marriage to its termination by death or divorce, in the span of one's life- time. Feldman and Feldman (1975) use career to refer to the "par- ticipation of a person in the family during her lifetime" (p. 283). They do not specify that it is the family of procreation, though this appears to be their intent. Hypotheses Hypothesis 1: The stage of the family career of the married college woman is related to the degree of role strain she experiences. Hypothesis 2: The more personal and family resources a married college woman perceives she has, the less role strain there will be. Hypothesis 3: The less role strain a married college woman experiences, the more likely she will be to graduate. Hypothesis 4: The less role strain a married college woman experiences, the higher satisfaction she feels. Objectives In addition to specific relationships, other informational aspects were of interest in this research. Therefore, this study has certain objectives. Objective 1: Objective 2: Objective 3: Objective 4: 10 To identify the particular personal resources, family resources, and other characteristics (age, stage of family career, employment status) which may influence role strain among married college women. To explore role strain resolution methods which may permit a married woman student to perform successfully in school and to graduate. To identify personal and family resources and status characteristics (age, stage of family career, employment) for married women students which may predict her school graduation. To find the relationship of length of time between first matriculation and actual college graduation to role strain. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Literature related to married women college students and married employed women was reviewed. Studies Related to Married Women College Students The limited studies available on married college women con- centrate on returning, part-time students or full-time graduate students. Overlooked in the literature are young women who have not interrupted their schooling but who are married undergraduates. Little is known about married student couples. Clearly, research on the married woman college student is very limited in an era when many married women are attending college. One recent and large study of women in graduate school was analyzed by Feldman (1974): We have found that for women, marriage has a deleterious effect on the role of student and that the least success- ful female students are those who attempt to combine the student and the spouse roles. The most successful women are those who are divorced--they have experienced the conflict and have settled the problem by abandoning one major role (p. 125). Married women in graduate school are older and much less likely to be enrolled full time than are men (Feldman, 1974; Young, 1973). This suggests a priority of roles, i.e., the primacy of the 11 GIT III? I) I II! ‘111 nIIIII A In" 12 marital role is possible, among the older women. Feldman studied a sample of full-time graduate students, hence questions about the conflicts of part-time students who are married are left unanswered. Further, since these data reveal nothing about married women as undergraduates, information should be gathered about their age, their enrollment status, and their other roles. Data from the 1972 Population Survey indicated that 7 out of 10 of all women college students age 35 years and older were married and nearly all of these women were in school part time (Young, 1973: 40). Furthermore, Young reports that as well as having home responsi- bilities, the majority of these married women students were in the labor force. Studies of mature married women who have returned to school have suggested that these women have high career orientations (Doty, 1966; Young, 1973; Lee, 1961) and are better able to make long range plans for the future than are other women (Doty, 1966). One study finds married women students less likely to have children than nonattending women (Hembrough, 1966), while other studies indi- cate most women returning to school do have children (Richter & Whipple, 1972; Taines, 1973). The critical fact remains hidden: what are the ages of the children of women students? Mulligan (1973:17) reports that both Sarah Lawrence and the University of Wisconsin continuing education progams for women have a higher retention rate and a higher level of achievement for women returning to higher education than for undergraduates following 13 more standard university patterns. Yet, there was evidently no attempt to match marital status samples in these comparisons. Curiously, studies of married women college students appear to concentrate on mature women or those returning to school after a period of absence. Perhaps this may be due to the relatively recent inauguration of continuing education programs and the subse- quent need to assess their contribution to university programs and to their student population. Although many young undergraduate women are married and have never withdrawn from school, very little appears in the literature regarding their attitudes about multiple roles. Attitudes of family members are considered important aspects of the married woman's college attendance. Reportedly, women stu- dents feel an essential condition for attending school is the approval of their husbands (Mulligan, l973:6; Lewis, 1969:54). Lee (1961) found that married women 25 years old and younger were less apt to be faced with family disapproval than were students 26 years old and older. The educational achievement of the husband appears to be an important condition which stimulates a woman's educational aspira- tions. The indications are that a highly educated group of men supports the educational aspirations of their wives (Doty, 1966; Richter & Whipple, 1972; Feldman, 1973). Closely associated with his education, is the husband's full-time employment status in a professional or managerial position. Hembrough (1966) finds this 14 employment status an enabling condition to the married woman's school attendance. In the studies cited, the reader must assume that "support" means both financial and psychological assistance. There is no evidence that husbands alter the amount of physical aid (e.g., helping with homemaking tasks) to their wives as a result of her involvement in the student role. Neither the educational achievement nor the professional status of the husband can of itself be considered a motivating factor. Lipman-Blumen (1972) found that young women with nontradi- tional sex-role concepts had higher educational aspirations and were more likely to consider their own achievement (as opposed to their husbands') important than women with more traditional sex-role concepts. She does, however, point out that women with the con- temporary ideology were more likely than those with a traditional viewpoint to marry after the completion of their college studies (p. 42). Marshall and King (1966) in a review of major findings on undergraduate student marriages, cite a study by Chilman and Meyer ——i '7 in which the married women students showed a need hierarchy more related to academic involvement and achievement, than wives who were not students. Doty (1966:172) reports that the mature married women in her study were more intellectually curious and had more "mascu- line" interest patterns than nonstudents. The need for achievement in women appears to be associated with their age and family situation according to Baruch (1967). 15 There is a moratorium in achievement striving while the nuclear family is being established; once these stages have past, a strong resurgence of achievement needs ensues during the 35-39 year period (p. 265). Baruch's studies were not longitudinal, but cross- sectional age cohorts. Though a large national sample was included, the problems attendant upon such assumptions about life-span from cohort samples may be serious. Generational differences can often explain the variation, thus, her conclusion must remain tentative. Hoffman (1972), in a review of research related to women's achievement motives, has said: There is a great deal of evidence that females have greater affiliative needs than males and therefore the conflict between affiliation and achievement probably will occur more often for women (p. 135). While this contrast in needs appears to set family and school roles at odds, she notes that others have suggested that achievement behavior in girls is motivated not by mastery strivings as with boys, but by affiliative motives. Possibly the married woman is motivated to achieve in school and in a future career in order to please her family. The support of her husband to pursue her student endeavors would be critical, for his disapproval would surely nullify her affiliative rewards. Yet, Hoffman continues: When achievement goals conflict with affiliative goals, . achievement behavior will be diminished and/or anxiety result. In college . . . and in professional pursuits, love is less frequently the reward for top performance. Driv- ing a point home, winning an argument, beating others in competition, and attending to the task at hand without being side-tracked by concern with rapport require the sub- ordination of affiliative needs (p. 136). 16 The priorities she places on her roles and how she incor— porates multiple roles into her life become important in understand- ing her need for achievement. Several researchers (Doty, 1966; Young, 1973; Lee, 1961) have noted a high career orientation on the part of the married women students they have studied. Feldman (l973a:228) found that divorced or separated women are more likely than their single or married female counterparts to place career ahead of family. This pattern has led him to speculate that, in some instances, the con- flict between the traditional family role and professional aspira- tions contributed to the divorce. Summarizing, the studies to date depend largely on informa- tion about mature married college women who have returned to the campus scene after a period of absence for child rearing. They came back to school on a part-time basis with their husbands' sup- port. Little is known about the role strain they feel or what its consequences are in terms of marital and personal satisfaction or degree completion. There is a similar lack of data about married women from an earlier phase in the family career who have never left the student role for any extended absence. Related Studies on Married Employed Women There are many cogent reasons, e.g., a degree of commitment to a role outside of the home, demands on her time and energy, that lead one to believe that for employed married women, the circum- stances may be very similar to the married woman student. Much 17 more has been investigated and written concerning the dual roles of the married employed woman. Kaley (1971) finds that women in teaching and research are more likely than those in other professions to perceive the pro- fessional role as an extension of the family role, and thus to witness little dual role conflict. Bailyn (1964) notes a form of overlap occurs when a woman's work lies in what might be called "feminine" fields: By this I mean professional work devoted to problems and concerns that the woman herself faces in her private capacity within the family. By lessening the distance between her two roles and hence reducing the contradictions in her self-image it would be expected to ease her problems (p. 708). In such cases, Bailyn points out, the necessity to have an independ- ent commitment to work is diminished and it eases some of the strain in a woman's professional role. Poloma (1972:191) suggests that professionally employed women perceive their employment as making them better mothers than they otherwise would have been. For married college students in home economics related courses of study, such as in this study sample, conflicts between the two roles and the concomitant strain should be lessened as students see a continuity between home roles and studies in college. Numerous studies (Astin, 1969; Bailyn, 1964; Poloma, 1972; Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971; Neil, 1961) assert that without the husband's support role conflicts for the married employed woman 18 cannot be resolved, if indeed the two roles can even be attempted concurrently. That husband's psychological support will extend to physical aid in the form of a helpful division of labor for the married employed woman is not a certainty. Research evidence cross-culturally indicates that when the wife works full time and earns a substantial income, the husband tends, to a varying degree, to share with her tasks inside the family (Safilios—Rothschild, 1972:67). British authors (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971; Young & Willmott, 1973) point out that men are spending more time in the home, doing housework. Still, the husband's participation in household chores is seen as an act of good will to "help" his wife [and is apt to be insufficient in amount (Blake, 1974)] rather than any assumption of these responsibilities on his own (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971:304). And there is some evidence indicating that working wives, in their effort to maintain the traditional housewife role, are reluctant to have husbands share household responsibilities (Safilios-Rothschild, 1972:256). Poloma (1972:197) concluded that role strain among pro- fessionally employed married women is neither widespread her very severe. When conflict-producing situations do occur, the woman relies on her role priorities to alleviate the problem. The estab- listment of a salient or cardinal role in a particular role con- stellation keeps priorities clear when choices must be made. 19 Young & Willmott (1973) found that most married women are less committed to paid work than to their families. A job is welcome for the money and the company far more than for the satisfaction intrinsic to it. Many of the least psychologically rewarding jobs are reserved for women as if to ensure that the competitive power of the home remains supreme (p. 122). Data from a study by Hall & Gordon (1973) support the primacy of home-related activities for married women, whether they happen to be personally oriented toward full-time home activities or not. Rapoport & Rapoport (1971) have defined careers as jobs which are highb/salient personally, have a developmental sequence and require a high degree of commitment. Studies (Angrist, 1972; Poloma & Garland, 1972) have pointed out that married women want to work but do not want careers. Marriage remains for them the salient role. The wife's career is equivalent to a “hobby" or viewed on a par with the neighbor's volunteer work (Poloma & Garland, 1971:535). In an analysis of women's work participation in developed countries, Blake (1974:141) has found that women typically partici- pate in economic activity only as a secondary supplement to their primary status inside the home. Additionally, her results show that women's engagement in work varies over their life cycle; but for the 1970 period, data indicate a smaller decline in women's work rates after age 25 and a rapid recovery rate in the early thirties to levels approximating those of youth. This more continuous work participation is an emerging pattern for women in highly developed I III. "III 20 countries reflecting rising participation by youthful married women, in some cases married women with young children. Being employed on a limited basis or having an interrupted work pattern, that is, dropping out of the labor force when the early stages of the family career include childbearing and child- rearing, appear to be the critical means for coping with the dual roles of home and employment. There is every possibility that these same coping measures are used by married women students to complete college degrees. If so, this may be a pattern married women use in other potentially conflictive role situations. What effect does working have on the marital satisfaction of married employed women? Safilios-Rothschild (1970) has analyzed women's degree of work commitment as an independent variable in relation to various aspects of family interaction. About marital satisfaction, she notes: Thus while there is no difference in the degree of marital satisfaction reported by all working and nonworking women, or by women with LWC (low working commitment) and nonwork- ing women, women with HWC (high working commitment) report a significantly higher marital satisfaction than nonworking women (p. 689). Orden and Bradburn (1969) divided working women into those who worked by choice and those who work by necessity and found that the overall Marital Adjustment Balance score was higher for those who chose to work than for those who worked because they needed the money or those who did not work. Their study however, makes no assessment of role strain in relation to marital satisfaction. IAIII Illlilll I I'll-V VIVI- 21 The Hall and Gordon study (1973) on the other hand did look at role conflicts and personal satisfaction for three groups of married women: full-time workers, part-time workers, and nonem- ployed housewives. Home pressures were the most important source of experienced conflict for all three groups. Full-time workers experienced greater satisfaction than women who worked part time. Part-time workers more than fu114time workers had a higher propor- tion of conflicts, particularly home-related conflicts, more roles to manage and the lowest satisfaction of the three groups. The researchers suggest there may have been less role reduction and less effective coping strategies among the part-time employed women which reduced their satisfaction. In the Rapoport and Raporport study (1971) of dual career families, the level of strain was high among these married couples. Yet they seemed particularly competent in handling the strain and, on the whole, a picture of relatively high marital satisfaction in addition to personal satisfaction for both wife and husband emerges. These families, by their own admission, relied on their organiza- tional and decision-making abilities and on being healthy as families to reduce the inevitable strains to manageable limits. As a part of the same research project, Bebbington (1973) found that these dual-career couples had a high level of stress inherent in this type of life style which they valued. Such stress was accepted as their solution to the problem of avoiding stress resulting from a life style inconsistent with their values. 22 In summary, studies of married employed women have been more diverse in their exploration of many more aspects of these dual roles. However, research designs have varied considerably so that there is a wide range of data with little conceptual consistency. Nevertheless, some phenomena emerge which suggest areas of possible comparison in the study of married women college students. CHAPTER III CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT Introduction The focus of this study concerns the married woman student in college and how she functions in multiple roles. Therefore, the appropriate conceptual and theoretical developments related to role are used as the framework for this research. Thomas and Biddle (1966:14) have pointed out that "role theory" is actually more theory than fact, but no one grand "theory." Swenson (1973:373) does allude to role theory and suggests that it is a way of looking at what goes on between people. All of the expected behaviors of a person in a particular social position con- stitute his or her role. Role theory holds that an individual's behavior can best be understood as a function of both role and per- sonality (Getzels & Guba, 1954:164). This research touches on some of the personality variables which may influence how the married college woman responds to multiple role demands. The review of literature has suggested many avenues to be studied in connection with the dual roles of family member and student for the married college woman. One principle problem centers around the variable role strain. Selected as possible influ- ences upon role strain and acting as independent variables, are: 23 24 stage of the family career and certain perceived personal and family resources. The effect of role strain upon the indiviual's roles as college student and as wife is assessed by whether or not the degree is completed and the amount of marital and personal satis- faction perceived while a student. Figure 1 represents all of these hypothesized relationships in which role strain is used as both a dependent and an independent variable. Role Conflict and Role Strain The conception of social role takes into account the fact that people hold different expectations of an individual depending on the role that person takes in relation to others. Thus, at any given time, several others may impose pressures toward different kinds of behavior. Conflicting role expectations may cause psy- chological distress for the individual. To the extent that this distress is perceived, it may be labelled as role strain, that is, the felt difficulty in fulfilling role obligations (Goode, 1960: 483). Role conflict as defined by Thomas and Biddle (1966:12) indicates inconsistency of prescriptions: it does not deal with the sheer overload of many roles. Others see that the multiplicity of concurrent roles and role interactions create a situation in which conflict is more likely (Swenson, 1973:393). .m—amwcm> acmvcmamucH use pcmvcmqmo zoom we cemeum mFom goes; a? mawgmcowumpmm umNmezuoaxz--._ mesmwu 25 mmpnmPcm> “coucmamo poo o :w flaw”: MOULSOmwm eoeuueemepem spe5eo wpnmwcm> ucmucogwucm :wecpm mmugaommm An chomcma m_om mpamwcm> ucmucmamo cmmcmu cowpmpaeou APPEmm omcmmo mmmwm manchm> acmncoqmucH 26 Sarbin and Allen (1968:540) note that role conflict is that condition in which an actor is concurrently in two or more positions requiring contradictory role enactments. They define role conflict as occurring between two or more roles with incompatible expecta- tions (inter-role conflict) or contradictory expectations for one role (intra-role conflict) (p. 540). For married college women, it is the inter-role conflicts between home responsibilities and school demands which are apt to be the greater problem. Coser and Rokoff (1971) see the conflict as deriving not only from participation in two different activity systems, but also from the fact that the values underlying the competing demands are contradictory. Professional women, for instance, (or those prepar- ing for professional roles) are expected to be as committed to their work as men are at the same time as they are normatively required to give priority to their family. Thus, it is a conflict of normative priorities (p. 535). Farmer and Bohn (1970:228) suggest that the source of the conflict between home and career is not the fact that more than one role is open to women, but is due to the cultural lag between social opportunity and social sanction. The fact remains that there is a considerable amount of con- flict built into women's roles. The multiplicity of women's roles puts a premium on the flexibility and adaptability to the inherent stress. 27 To Talcott Parsons (1966) the factor of role conflict is important in understandingtfluemotivations and behavior of an indi- vidual. By this is meant the exposure of the actor to conflicting sets of legitimized role expectations such that complete fulfillment of both is realistically impossible. It is necessary to compromise, that is, to sacrifice some at least of both sets of expectations, or to choose one alternative and sacrifice the other. In any case the actor is exposed to negative sanctions and, so far as both sets of values are internalized, to internal conflict (p. 275). The perspective of Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, and Snoek (1964:19) encompasses all of these environmental pressures and a further con- cern for the focal person's own psychological involvement as a conflictual force. These authors distinguish three types of sent role conflict (i.e., the simultaneous occurrence of two or more sets of pressures such that compliance with one would make more difficult compliance with the other) which will result in psychologi- cal conflicts for the focal person. The first might be termed intra-sender conflict: dif- ferent prescriptions and proscriptions from a single member of the role set may be incompatible . . . The second type might be termed inter-sender conflict: pressures from one role sender oppose pressures from one or more other senders. A third type of conflict is inter-role conflict. Here the role pressures associated with membership in one organization are in conflict with pressures stemming from membership in other groups (p. 19, 20). The fourth type of conflict is perhaps the most relevant to this research. Kahn et al. suggest that the combination of sent role pressures and internal forces produces person-role conflict (p. 20). It occurs when there is a conflict between the needs and 28 values of a person and the demands of his role set; also it occurs when role requirements violate moral values. Very possibly it occurs when such requirements oppose one's sex-role ideology, as when the husband or family holds traditional expectations for the wife and mother which run counter to her expectations of herself as a college student to achieve outside of her home role. People will experience role pressures differently as their motives, their habits, their skills, their interests, and their ability to tolerate stress vary. The personality of the married woman college student, in this case, and the relationship she has with her husband have an important influence on the extent to which role conflict produces strain. In summary, sufficient role conflict produces role strain which is the existence of cognitive discomfort due to incompatible expectations or to multiple role demands which exceed the actor's available resources (time, energy, motivation, money) such that one cannot possibly do justice to all roles. Role strain is therefore, a theoretically useful concept in analyzing the school performance of married women college students. It is practically useful in that role strain is perceived, therefore measureable, and can be verified by self reports. A Systems Perspective of Roles The family has been viewed increasingly by theorists as a social system (Anderson & Carter, 1974; Kantor & Lehr, 1975). In 29 distinguishing social systems, Katz and Kahn (1966:18) select two basic criteria: (1) tracing the pattern of energy exchange or activity of people as it results in some output, and (2) ascertain- ing how the output is translated into energy which reactivates the system. The very interrelatedness of roles within the family struc- ture characterizes the organization, so basic to any social system. Anderson and Carter (1974) point out: In order to achieve goals the family must, through its organ- ization, secure and conserve energy from both internal and external sources. The members of the family must contribute energy for the family system as well as import energy for their individual purposes (p. 107). Thus, the family is seen as a system organized through roles. Their strength and support for one another as individuals and as a family is viewed as the flow of energy. The flow of energy is both output and input which serves to keep the system operative. In a systems perspective, equilibrium is a state of active compatibility between the needs of the person and the demands and supplies from the environment (Anderson & Carter, 1974:130). There is feedback which confirms and reinforces the individual's develop- ing capacity to understand and to master the environment. When a state of equilibrium exists in one's role relation- ships (or systems), there are not likely to be role conflicts which have exceeded the individual's capacity to manage them. Thus, there would be no appreciable strain involved. However, when role strain does occur it may be regarded as a state of disequilibrium within the role system. 30 Family Career and Role Strain The state of the family career during which the married woman participates in the student role is likely to influence the amount of role conflict she perceives. Lee (1961) reports that older married women (over 26 years) faced more family disapproval than did younger married women (25 years or less). It is not clear whether this is a reaction to normative age expectations or, in fact, reflects disapproval of the behavior deemed contrary to norma- tive marital expectations after a certain period of time, i.e., the wife and mother should be home caring for husband and young child- ren. Stage of the family career is a factor which should be ana- lyzed in relation to role strain. When the marital career is overlaid with the early stages of a parental career including both childbearing and childrearing phases, roles increase and role demands become more complex within the family. It can be anticipated that there would be more role conflicts for the college-attending mother of young children than for the childless wife or the mother with older, more self-sufficient children. Data reviewed earlier are inconclusive regarding the parent status of married women students and it appears that samples vary in this respect. The sample and the academic setting and child care services available must be explicit for comparative analysis to be possible. Young women of the 1970's who first marry while in college and continue in the student role might be assumed to have had some 31 tacit understanding with the partner even prior to marriage that their goal of degree completion would be uninterrupted. Thus, the student role would then be less conflictual to the family role than for the more mature woman returning after a lengthy period of full- time participation in the family role. Habits become ingrained and expectations of the spouse built up over the course of time which may be difficult to disavow even when the obligations of another role intrude. The length of marriage, i.e., the number of years married, may be an important factor to consider as well as the presence and ages of children in the stage of the family career as it affects role strain. Married student couples are often in a campus setting in which their multiple roles as students and family members are not uncommon. Hurvitz (1960:614) reports that the absence of strain in marriage is found when role performance is similar to those of other couples. Additionally, he notes that marital strain may be associated with an individual pattern of expectations of the roles of the other spouse rather than a difference from the modal rank order of role expectations. Burr (1973) views role discrepancies as role behaviors which do not conform to norms and thereby create a discrepancy. He postu- lates an inverse, linear relationship between the number of role discrepancies and marital satisfaction. From a systems perspective, the role strain causing dis- equilibrium is most likely associated with some forces or techniques 32 for alleviating it. Similarly, Kahn et a1. (1964:106) state that in order to maintain efficient role performance, a person must achieve and maintain a balance between the demands made and the resources made available to meet those demands. If this is true, then the extent to which the married college woman has resources--both internal and externa1--which can be utilized in multi-demand role situations will determine the amount of role strain she perceives. The resources to be explored in this study are both personal and family supports. These resources, in turn, are seen as assisting the married college woman in resolving role strain. Personal Resources Role pressures affect people differently due to individual characteristics and personality variations and the resources one can command to avoid role strain. This study measures three indi- vidual traits as personal resources which may support the married woman college student in her multiple roles. First, good health would be a personal attribute which would allow an individual to assume the responsibility and work load of multiple roles. Secondly, the ability to plan ahead, to work toward goals, to establish priorities in the pursuit of goals and to delegate responsibility to others are all executive abilities which would assist the individual in meeting the responsibilities of multiple roles. To the extent that one can call upon these management skills, they can be considered as a personal resource. 33 Getzels and Guba (1954:172) found that the greater the role conflict, the greater the ineffectiveness in one of the actor's roles. In their sample, the method most frequently used to resolve role conflict was the choice by the individual of a major role to which he committed himself. The major role then determined his action at critical choice points despite conflicting demands attach- ing to other roles which he simultaneously occupied. A problem for many married women may be to sort out their own priorities toward family, work, and school. No research had indicated whether or not married women have thought through the order of allegiance to their roles when school is included. This research proposes to do so, viewing the ordering of priorities as a management skill which may assist her in alleviating role strain. Thirdly, studies of the need for achievement suggest that this attribute combines a risk-taking and persistence quality that would seem desirable for the married woman student. Mehrabian (1968:494) has defined high achievers as having a stronger motive to achieve than their motive to avoid failure. High achievers have also been found to be more independent in their interpersonal rela- tionships and less susceptible to conformity pressures; they are also better able to delay gratification and more eager to engage in activities which may not be intrinsically satisfying but which lead to distant rewards (Mehrabian, 1968:495). An achievement motive would appear to serve the married college woman well in that it would provide the determination to pursue her educational goals in 34 spite of inconveniences and distractions in the process. This study utilizes a measure of the need for achievement and regards the need for achievement as a personal resource. Family Resources Kahn et a1. (1964:337) have pointed out that the stresses of role conflict are not equally damaging to all who experience them. Not only does the personality of the individual mediate the extent to which role conflict produces strain but also the inter- relationship of the focal individual with others in the same role set is an important determinant of strain. Thus, for the married college woman perceiving the psychological support of her husband and family is an important resource supporting her in her multiple roles. If her husband and family members give her their emotional support to pursue her educational goals, it follows that they may be more willing also to give her physical support by providing help in household chores which free her for involvement outside the home. Having private space in which she may study in quiet sug- gests not only that there is a place in the home where she may do so, but that the family members recognize it as such. Another external support which the family may supply is financial aid, not only for the necessary tuition expenses but also to obtain services to aid her in the student role or to free her from household responsibilities. 35 All of these family resources--emotional, physical, and financial--are regarded as external supports which may determine the amount of role conflict the married college woman may perceive. Role Strain Resolution The individual can, according to Goode (1960:486) use two main sets of techniques for reducing role strain: those which have to do with manipulating the role structure, that is, those which determine whether or when an individual will enter or leave a role relationship, and those which have to do with the actual terms of the role which the individual carries out with another. Goode uses the term role "bargain" to suggest both aspects of negotiation with role partners and the economic decision making (allocation of scarce resources) which must accompany a role decision (p. 487). The married college woman must employ just this kind of bargaining with family members as she assumes the role of student along with the family and home responsibilities she may already have. In making a role decision, the individual must consider her own internal demands, that is, those of her own personality needs which must be served, the expectations she has of herself for per- formance in a given role. The individual's problem is how to make his whole role system manageable, that is how to allocate his energies and skills so as to reduce role strain to some bearable prOportions (Goode, 1960:485). Succinctly, the individual can reduce role strain by: selecting a set of mutually supportive roles and obtaining the best 36 "bargain" possible with each role partner in the total personal role pattern (Goode, 1960:490). To what extent the married college woman finds her school role and her family role mutually supportive is explored in this study. One of the ways that married women students accommodate their two roles is to become part-time students. Thus, by lessening involvement with other role sets she is better able to accommodate expectations in another role set. Sarbin and Allen (1968:541) have pointed out that the exist- ence of cognitive strain leads to an increase in behavior directed toward resolving the strain. Such strain resolution explored in this study includes: (1) changing beliefs relevant to the incompat- ible roles (e.g., changing one's beliefs concerning the priority to be given role enactments);(2) delegating or even eliminating some duties attendant upon her roles; (3) no adaptation or unsuccess- ful adaptation with the consequences of strain being low job satis- faction, high tension on the job and decreasing effectiveness. Hall (1972) investigated coping strategies used by married college-educated employed women when they were faced with role conflict. He categorized the strategies used into three broad types or methods of coping: (I) structural role redefinition which involves redefining the expectations of others, (11) personal role redefinition in which one changes her own perception of role demands rather thantchangingthe environment, and (III) reactive role behavior in which the individual attempts to meet all demands. 37 Hall describes the type III behaviors of planning, schedul- ing, and organizing better among others as being defensive techniques rather than coping behaviors. As a result, he feels these type III behaviors may be related to low satisfaction. In this study, planning, scheduling, and organizing are seen as management skills which allow one to function better in whatever role responsibilities are assumed. They are viewed as dimensions of the self which the individual takes into each role. They are characteristic ways of approaching tasks more likely to be used at the outset of role responsibilities rather than put into practice only after demands become conflictual and responsibilities burdensome. While management skills can be learned with time and experience in the role, it seems unlikely that the inexperienced would be able to employ them readily in a stress situation. There- fore, it seems more reasonable to regard them as resources upon which one relies when undertaking multiple roles. Role Strain and Satisfaction It was the hypothesis of Ort (1950:692) that the amount of self judgment of "happiness or unhappiness" in marriage depends upon, or is at least related to, the number of conflicts between role expectations and roles played by the subject, and role expecta- tions for the subject's mate, as the subject sees it. The conclu- sions indicated that the number of role conflicts in marriage is related to the self-happiness rating of the individual. 38 Rollins and Cannon (1974:281), building from Burr's (1973: 45) postulation, suggest that family career may be related to marital satisfaction through the amount of normative presciptions of task performance in family roles and amount of role strain in family roles. They hypothesize that role strain has an inverse linear relationship with marital satisfaction. CHAPTER IV DESIGN OF THE STUDY This chapter outlines the design of the study: the method- ology is described, the development of the instrumenk is discussed, and the measurement of variables and the methods of analysis are explicated. Concluding the chapter is a description of the popula- tion, the sampling procedure, and the response. Methodology For the purpose of empirically examing the research problem, this project employed the method of self-administered questionnaires. Questionnaires were used rather than interviews because: (1) they could be administered easily, (2) they were relatively inexpensive per unit, (3) the degree of cooperation was expected to be moderately high, and (4) they make it possible to gather a wide variety of data. This was important in this project as much information about the population was desired which went beyond the sc0pe of this particular dissertation. Development of the Instrument Since the focus of the study was on role strain and no instrument was found to measure this variable for the potentially conflictual roles of family and school for the married woman, a 39 4O self-administered role strain scale was devised. Other measures for the additional variables were developed or adapted from the litera- ture. A role strain scale was designed to measure role strain; additionally, items were designed to assess the dimensions of per- sonal and family resources. This instrument was pretested on a sample of married undergraduate and graduate women students enrolled in departments at Wayne State University other than that from which the study population came, Oakland University, Michigan State Uni- versity, and the University of Michigan. The pretests were dis- tributed in classes, at a campus women's meeting, and at a Women's Resource Center. Of the 111 pretests given out, 72 usable pretests were returned. The return rate on the pretest was 64.8 percent. Based on the pretest, revisions were made in the inclusion of certain items and the wording of others in the final question- naire. Since the pretest was designed to measure other variables thought to be associated with role strain, in addition to role strain itself, no internal consistency or reliability measures were taken of the total pretested instrument. Measurement of Variables Role Strain In the pretest, this variable was measured by 23 statements to which the respondent indicated agreement or disagreement on a 6-point, Likert-type scale. Role strain items were scattered 41 throughout the pretest and the subsequent scale used in the question- naire, along with items designed to assess perceived personal and family resources. The items were variously worded--some positively stated, some negatively-~to avoid any possible response set. Appendix A includes the pretest instrument; Appendix C includes the entire research questionnaire. The following discussion of the role strain scale items as numbered refers to the items as they appear numbered in the final instrument, Appendix C, pages 129-132. (The total Role Strain Scale includes items: 107, 111, 118, 120, 122, 124, 125, 126, 128-139.) The role strain scale items were designed as a result of con- cerns highlighted by the review of literature. If the individual were aware of conflicts or stress, the use of coping strategies would also be a conscious and deliberate response behavior. There— fore, items were aimed at potential stress areas as well as the utilization of coping techniques. Existing studies (Kaley, 1971; Bailyn, 1964) have pointed to the need for the married employed woman to see the career role as an extension of the family role rather than as a separate entity in order to lessen conflict. The career role would then be a mutually supporting role which could reduce role strain according to Goode (1960). Role strain scale items 130 and 134 were designed to tap that perception. A feeling of adequacy in one's school performance (Item 129) and the recognition of becoming more self-confident as a result of 42 one's schooling (Item 125) would tend to obviate tension and con- flict over the school role. Any tension, stress, or conflict would tend to undermine feelings of self-confidence. Related to feelings of self-confidence and adequacy, as well as a perception of a low stress level, would be feeling good about the way things were going (Item 137) and feeling no guilt about pursuing higher education (Item 138). Agreement with these statements, aiming at the individual's perception of the situation, would be inimical to role strain. Having more conflict with one's partner while in school (Item 120), may be the result of an effort to persuade the role sender to modify incompatible demands (Kahn et a1. 1964). This may occur in the interest of obtaining the best role bargain possible (Goode, 1960). Whatever the genesis of the conflict, it is a stress for the individual when the role sender is not in agreement and may even disapprove. Having adopted attitudes toward roles which are different from the partner's (Item 133), is a statement designed to get at this same idea of "role discrepancy" (Burr, 1973). Time pressures (Items 107, 111), work load pressures (Items 128, 136, 139), and feeling tired much of the time (Item 118) indicate that the individual is attempting to resolve the stress by compliance resulting in a feeling of pressure. Kahn et a1. (1964:29) have suggested that coping with pressure may involve the formation of physiological symptoms. If always being tired (Item 118) were possibly a preliminary physiological symptom, then it seemed that 43 this statement was appropriate as an assessment of that personal resource, health. However, according to pretest results, being tired tapped a response closer to perceived pressures than health. Thus, "always feeling tired" was included among the final role strain items. Another aspect of compliance with the expectations of others which may cause role strain is the effort to carry out a role with- out personal conviction about the value of the role. An example of this would be going to school to please others (Item 126). Persuading role senders to modify their demands obtains for one a better role bargain. If the married college woman can accom- plish this task, her family do not expect as much help when she is in the role of student (Item 131). The employment of any coping technique suggests the presence of role strain which the individual is attempting to lessen. Rede- fining one's expectations for self performance in roles by lowering standards (Items 122, 135) has been suggested as a means of resolv- ing role strain (Sarbin & Allen, 1968). Another way to cope is to avoid the source of stress (Kahn et a1. 1964) which may mean leaving the field. Those who choose multiple roles as a life style may find it necessary to relinquish some enjoyable activities (Item 124) in order to preserve time and energy. Doing so indicates the person has been experiencing role strain. For the person who is married, possibly also a parent and working outside the home, the burden of multiple roles may make the 44 completion of studies prior to this particular life stage appear especially desirable. Item 132 aims at that attitude. The pretest instrument included several items which were subsequently removed to improve reliability. One item in the origi- nal scale was included to get directly at feelings of compliance: "I try very hard to comply with my family's, the university's, and other expectations of me." Two other statements dealing with pressures that were likewise deleted were: "I often plan my school work as I attend my other duties" and "I am able to get my school work done on time." Another statement aimed at finding role discrepancies which might cause strain was: "My husband and friends outside of school share my views of women's roles." The interitem correlation statistics indicated reliability would be improved if each of these items were omitted. The final role strain scale reflects this change, including only 20 items. The index of role strain as pretested produced an unstan- dardized alpha coefficient of .827. The coefficient alpha, developed by Cronbach, indicates the average interitem correlation of all items constituting the scale (Crano & Brewer, 1973:229). It is a reliability measure of the extent to which the test has internal consistency. Further, it indicates that the individual items on the test were producing similar patterns of responding in different people. The role strain scale of 20 items as used in the final study had a coefficient alpha of .815. This slight decrease in 45 reliability from the pretest may be attributable to the different group of respondents and to the larger number of respondents. Construct validity represents the finding that the psycho- logical reality of the variable, in this case role strain, does in fact exist. In the interest of construct validity, much effort was spent to define the problems faced by married women college students in terms of role theory. Predictive validity is assessed when role strain becomes the criterion and other related variables, the predictors. The resulting relationships would provide an indication of the predic- tive validity of the role strain scale. The relationship found between role strain and health and management skills, which are objective assessments, may be considered as supporting the scale's predictive validity. The Pearson product moment correlation of role strain average and health is -.414 (p < .001), and with manage- ment skills, -.267 (p < .001). The items on the role strain scale were so coded that the higher the response number, the higher the role strain. The total role strain score was an average score of all the scale items to which the individual responded. Personal Resources Statements were designed to measure the married student's managerial skills, her health, and need for achievement as indicants of personal resources. (Appendix C, pp. 129-131, Items 108, 114, 117, 119, 121, 123, 127.) On the basis of 8 items in the pretest, 46 the unstandardized alpha coefficient was .419. Accordingly, one of the items was removed. However, internal consistency was not expected to be high as the various items measured very diverse con- cepts and the number of items was limited. In the final questionnaire,apart from the scale items, there were additional questions which related to management skills, specifically that of establishing priorities among roles. (Appen- dix C, p. 127, Items 86-89). A Role Index was constructed on the basis of the response to these items. Where there were clear prior- ities established with no roles conflicting for first, second, or third place, a role score of 2 was given. If there was a clear choice of a major or cardinal role, but a conflict of roles was evident at a lower level, a score of l was established. No score was given if one or more roles competed with another for the major role choice. The need for achievement scale (Appendix C, pp. 124-125, Items 68-77) was an adaptation of Mehrabian's short form (1968). It was employed in the final questionnaire but not in the pretest. This instrument was adopted because it was a short and easy, self- administered scale. In correspondence with Mehrabian, he suggested using the 10 items employed in the final questionnaire. A misprint necessitated the elimination of item 76 from the scoring. Mehrabian (1968:498) reports a lO—week test—retest yields a product moment correlation coefficient of .72 for this scale. In terms of validity, he notes: 47 With the same (df = 109) degrees of freedom, the short female achievement scale correlates 0.28 with the TAT (p < .01); -O.16 with the TAQ (p > .05); 0.33 with the TAT-TAQ (p < .01); and -0.05 with the Crowne and Marlowe scale (p > .05) (p. 500). It was felt that these additional questionnaire items on both management skills and need for achievement would bolster the assessment of personal resources. Family Resources The index of family supports to the married woman college student are the physical (Appendix C, page 130, Items 115 and 116), emotional (page 129, Items 105, 106, 109), and financial (page 129, Items 110, 112, 113). These statements were designed to elicit the perceptions of the individual concerning the aid she felt her family contributed to sustaining her in the dual roles of student and family member. The unstandardized alpha coefficient of reliability for the family resources scale was .643 in the pretest. Life Satisfaction ¥ 7 44-“ The self-anchoring scale for satisfaction with life (Kil- patrick & Cantril, 1960) was employed because of its adaptability to a mailed questionnaire. (Appendix C, p. 123, Items 66 and 67.) Respondents were asked to place themselves on the ladder according f‘ to their satisfaction with life during their last year in the depart- ment and also where they would place themselves now. These data were used separately. 48 Marital Satisfaction Questions assessing marital satisfaction were taken from Rollins and Feldman (1970:23). As used, the questions asked the respondent to consider how well things went and how often certain feelings or interactions occurred between that individual and part- ner while in school and also now. (Appendix C, page 127-128, Items 84, 85, 91-104.) Average scores of satisfaction while in school and marital satisfaction now were used independently. Satisfaction A combined satisfaction score was derived by combining the marital satisfaction score while in school and the life satisfaction score while in the department. For each individual, the marital satisfaction average while in school and the life satisfaction score during the last year in the department were transformed to a single average score by the use of Z scores. Stage of the Family Career The stage of the family career is usually determined on the basis of the age of the oldest child. For childless couples, length of marriage is the determinant. Since it was expected that a high number of these women students might be childless, analysis of the data was done both by length of marriage and on the basis of the age of the oldest child. 49 Child Index A Child index was constructed from the responses to a ques- tion asking the number of children in each age category. (See Appendix C, p. 121, Items 43-47.) A value of 5 was given to the Infant category, 4 to Preschool, 3 to School Age, 2 to Teen Age, and 1 to Older. The number of children in each category and the total score for the individual constituted the Child Index. Thus, having many children and/or young children gave the individual woman a high child index score. Other variables were measured by the subject's response to single items. Table l is a summary table of variables and their measure- ment. Methods of Analysis The data had been precoded on the questionnaire to facili- tate key punching in preparation for computer analysis. The degree of role strain for each individual was based on her average score on the role strain scale. Individual scores were then placed within the range of similar scores to distinguish three groups of role strain: low, medium, and high. Stage of the family career in relation to the degree of role strain was analyzed by one-way analysis of variance. First, the analysis was done using the age of the oldest child as the indicator of stage of family career. Next, the analysis was performed with 50 TABLE 1.--Summary Table of Variables and Their Measurement. Variable Measurement Data Used Role Strain Stage of Family Career Personal Resources Family Resources Graduation Satisfaction Feeling of inability to meet expectations Length of time married Number and ages of children Managerial Skillsa Health Need for Achieve- menta Physicala Emotionala Financiala Initial sample selection determined this Also, student status by number of hours completed Life Satisfaction Marital Satisfactionb Combined Satisfactionb Attitude Scale Items: 107, 111, 118, 120, 122, 124, 125, 126, 128-139. Questionnaire Item: 80 43—47 Scale Items: 114, 117, Questionnaire Items: 88-90 Scale Item: 108 Scale Items: 114, 117 Questionnaire Items: 68-77 Scale Items: 115, 116 105, 106, 109 110, 112, 113 Subject code number Questionnaire Items: 7, 8 Items: 66, 67 84, 85, 91-104 67, 84, 91-97 aThe scoring of these variables was done by averaging the responses to scale items only. bIndividual satisfaction scores were determined by averag- ing the questionniare items specified. 51 length of marriage as the stage of the family career to see if there was any change in significance. The Student-Newman-Keuls procedure, part of the one-way computer program, is a contrast test for subsets of different size. It results in all pairwise contrasts being tested at the same alpha level (.05). This procedure was employed for all one-way analysis of variance tests. In order to find the relationship of personal resources and family resources to role strain, a multiple regression table was constructed. This allowed a study of the linear relationship between the independent variables (personal and family resources) and role strain. Multiple regression indicates those variables which make a unique contribution to the dependent variable. The regression analysis was performed by a computer program which first generates a correlation matrix of all the variables in the analysis, and in step one, picks the best predictor, that is the independent variable that has the highest correlation with the dependent variable, and performs a regression analysis with this predictor. It then selects the next independent variable which adds the most to the variance accounted for by the regression, that is, that variable which, when combined with the predictor previously chosen, has the highest multiple correlation with the dependent variable. This process is repeated until all the independent vari- ables are included in the analysis. The program generates beta coefficients for each variable for each step. These indicate how 52 much change in the dependent variable is produced by a standardized change in one of the independent variables when the others are held constant, thus giving an indication of the relative predictive strength of the independent variable. A one-way analysis of variance was also employed to test hypothesis three in which graduated or not is the dichotomous independent variable and role strain the continuous dependent vari- able. For the last hypothesis, to test the relationship of role strain and the combined satisfaction score, a Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was generated. This was followed by the use of a multiple regression equation in which other variables in the study were viewed along with role strain in the contribution to satisfaction. TABLE 2.—-Summary Table of Hypotheses and Tests Used. Hypothesis Measures Used Statistical Test 1 Stage of Family Career Analysis of Variance Role Strain 2 Family Resources Mulitple Regression Personal Resources Role Strain 3 Role Strain Analysis of Variance Graduation (Degree or Student Status) 4 Role Strain Pearson Correlation & Emotional Average Multiple Regression Financial Average Health Management Skills Satisfaction (combined) 53 The ngulation By examining the samples of much of the previous research, it became clear that such studies had been limited to mature married women students. The present population includes a great age range of women in various stages of their family careers. The population of this project consisted of all married women degree recipients, inactives, and some active students from the Family and Consumer Resources Department of Wayne State Univers- ity in Detroit, Michigan. The department was formerly known as the Home Economics Department. Degree programs in five areas of study are available: Clothing and Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Foods and Nutrition, Housing and Interiors, and Human Development and Relation- ships. As an urban university, the student body differs appre- ciably from those at universities with residential campuses. Michi- gan residents overwhelmingly (96%) comprise the student body. a great majority coming from nearby Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. Klotsche (1966:89) has reported that 80 percent of the unmarried undergraduates live with their parents. This information cannot be verified by the University. The Provost's office reports that a survey of 787 Freshmen in the Fall of 1974 revealed that 95.2 percent were living with parents or relatives, while it was the preferred residence of only 41 percent. Since the majority of Junior and Senior students at Wayne come in as SOphomores from 54 community and junior colleges, it is not possible to extend these data to the total student body. Klotsche further reports, and the University Relations Depart- ment verifies for recent years, that three-fourths of the under- graduates were working or hoped to be employed sometime during the academic year. In 1973, 26.7 percent of the undergraduates were married, while 57.3 percent of the graduate students were married. While the university has this sort of data available, the Family and Consumer Resources Department (henceforth referred to as FAC Department) did not keep personal information of this sort on record for each student. Therefore, when the survey was mailed to all recent graduates and inactives, it was uncertain as to the number of possible married respondents. Sampling_Procedure and Data Collection In order to get the largest possible number of women respondents who were married college students and who would be able to recall their experiences in the recent past, the study included only those who had been students over the past ten years: Fall Quarter; 1964 through Fall Quarter; 1974. The sample was composed of three categories of subjects: Degree Conferred: All who had received degrees, either Bachelor's or Master's Degrees. Inactive Students: All who had dropped out of the department program after having completed a minimum of 16 undergraduate credit hours or 8 graduate credit hours. 55 Active Students: All those who were currently enrolled and who had completed a minimum of 90 percent of their work toward a degree, either 160 undergraduate or 43 graduate credit hours. It was felt that these were students who were most likely to finish and could therefore be included in the study. The FAC Department files yielded 1,643 names which would fit into these categories. From a search of University alumni records, it was possible to correct and update the original list to reduce to 1,431 the number who were sent the introductory letter. The introductory letter (See Appendix B) was sent via bulk mailing third class (.018 cents each) as an economy measure. Each envelope was stamped Address Correction Requested which provides the return of the letter if not delivered and the address correction if available. With the address corrections which were returned by early June, the list was corrected to include a sample of 1,303 persons who were sent the final questionnaire. Table 3 indicates the dis- position of questionnaires among the subject categories and the response rates. From the 354 usable questionniares returned, 133 subjects qualified for this study as married students, or those who had separated from their spouses during the specified period, or who had been living together during the specified time. They were selected from the total study by their response to the marital status question number 78 (Appendix C, page 126). 56 TABLE 3.--Questionnaire Response. No. not Subject Number Delivered, Total Returns Category Distributed Duplicate, n 7 Etc. ° Active Graduate 26 2 24 17 71 Undergraduate 32 1 31 15 48 Degree Conferred Graduate 120 11 109 57 52 Undergraduate 292 11 281 127 45 Inactive Graduate 109 34 75 18 24 Undergraduate 724 149 575 120 21 TOTAL 1303 208 1095 354 OVERALL RETURN RATE 32% It was thought necessary to exclude from this study students who had married during the last year of school since these individu- als would be less likely to have experienced a build-up of the type of role conflicts and hence, the strain to be investigated. Like- wise, women who had been separated more than two years before leaving school probably had experienced other causes of marital stress and though the strain would be evident, it might not be connected to the types of conflict measured here. Whereas, if the separation occurred during the last two years of their schooling, it would be more likely associated with the stress of the student role. 57 In additiontx>those who had been legally married or divorced, the sample also includes respondents who have been "living together" with a partner of the opposite sex for more than two years of the time they were in the FAC Department. These individuals were included because it was felt that their roles would be as conflictual as a married sample. Thus, the final sample was 133 subjects. TABLE 4.--Marital Status as a Student in FAC Department. Marital Status Absolute Frequency (n) Single ' l7l Married last year in school 31 Separated more than two years 16 Married last two years 113 Separated within last two years. 11 Living together more than two years 9 No answer (missing cases) 3 TOTAL 354- Nonrespondents Initially, it had been planned to contact every 20th nonrespondent by telephone to urge return of the questionniare or to obtain key survey data in the conversation. As indicated pre- viously, the departmental listing gave no clue as to marital status; thus, when few of those contacted by phone were married it was not altogether surprising. 58 Most often there was no phone listed under either the student's last name or at the address given. Therefore, it became impossible to continue the deliberate sampling of non- respondents. Subsequently, all names with listed phone numbers were used. Of these, most often there was no answer alth0ugh calls were made both during the day and in the early evening to increase the opportunity to reach nonrespondents. However, it was mid-July and possibly vacation time for some. For those contacted, only two had been married as graduate students. They had completed their degrees and were persuaded to return their questionnaires. Most of those contacted were listed as inactive students, yet none had been married while in school. Rather, five had left to be married and had moved away or gone to work. According to the other family members contacted, the particu- lar student had "no intention of going back to school."1 Another three of the inactive students contacted had trans- ferred to another college or university and had finished elsewhere. These had not married in college. 1Bayer (1968:313) notes that for girls, marital plans are very important predictors of college completion. He suggests that as matrimony becomes possible, schooling is no longer necessary among their ordering of priorities. CHAPTER V RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Description of Subjects The 133 subjects of this study were predominantly white (83%), married women (85%) who lived with their husbands and child- ren, and who, as graduate students had a mean age at the start of their programs of 33.9 years and as undergraduates a mean age of 23.9 years when they began their studies in the department. Tabular presentation of additional information is available in Appendix 0, Tables 21-23. A high percentage (68%) of the respondents were either degree recipients (Bachelor's or Master's) or had completed 90 percent of their work toward a degree. The mean years to complete the under- graduate program in the department was 5.6 years with a range of 20 years for 28 subjects. For the Master's degree, the mean years to complete the program was 3.6 years for 28 subjects. Thus, much like Feldman's (1973) sample of married graduate students, the enrollment status of these married women students is more apt to be on a part—time basis. Their pattern of schooling may be a reflection of their involvement in numerous other roles. For instance, this married sample displayed the general tendency of Wayne State University 59 60 students to be employed: 74.3 percent were employed part- or full- time while they were students. In spite of employment being an important aspect of their lives, the most important reason for pursuing the degree was overwhelmingly the desire to accomplish their own goals, listed by 76.9 percent as very important. Secondly, the desire to be an educated person was a strong motivation for 58.9 percent of the sample. The future need for income (38.5%) and the desire for better job opportunities and better pay (34.4%) were of lesser importance as reasons most of these women were in college. See Table 5. TABLE 5.--Reasons Cited for Attending College. Reason Percent Citing as Very Important Need to accomplish own goals 76.9 Desire to be an educated person 58.9 Future need for income 38.5 Better job opportunities/ Better pay 34,4 Note. Percentages do not add to 100% as respondents could check more than one reason. Similar to other study samples of married college women, over 85 percent of this group of married women college students had husbands who had had at least some college. Of this number, 35 percent of the husbands had graduate degrees. The majority (72.3%) of the husbands were independent businessmen, professionals, 61 or in supervisory positions in their work. While two-thirds of the partners were earning $10,000 or more while these women were stu- dents, 60.5 percent of the women reported their own personal funds as a very important resource in helping to pay schooling expenses. Husband's funds were reported by 55.6 percent as being very important in meeting school expenses. During their last year of school, 85 women (63.9%) were parents. Of this number, 31 were parents of preschoolers, or infants; 47 reported having from one to three school age children. Those reporting having at least one teenager numbered 38 and 14 women reported having at least one child 19 years of age or older. It appears that among this group of women, once their child- ren are of school age they are more likely to go to school them- selves. When employment status and parenthood are considered, another view of this same phenomenon is suggested. Table 6 compares the child index means of various employment status groups; the role index means are also included in this table. The child index, compared with the employment status while at school, indicates that those who were not employed at all had the highest rating suggesting either very young children or many children which, if considered as a measure of stress, would limit role involvements. Those married women who were employed during vacations only or part time on an irregular basis had the lowest child index means. 62 Since employment figures importantly in the lives of most of these married women students, the question arises as to whether or not they establish priorities among their numerous roles. Part—time employed students who work on a regular basis are far more likely to have priorities; occasional part-time workers are more apt to estab- lish priorities than full-time employed students or the nonemployed students. TABLE 6.--Employment Status by Child Index and Role Index. Employment Status n Chilaeggdexa Rolfieigdexb Not employed at all 34 5.06 .44 Vacations or part . time occasionally 21 2.38 .76 Part time regularly 55 3.80 1.09 Full time _22. 4.18 .59 TOTAL 132 aHigher scores indicate more children and/or younger children. bHigher scores indicate greater likelihood that priorities among roles have been established. . Characteristics of Inactives In order to obtain more clearly the differences between married college women in this sample who did not finish their degree program within the department (inactives) from those who did, several variables were investigated. At the outset it must be clear 63 that there were nine students who have finished, or are finishing, their degrees in other departments at the university or at other institutions. The total number of inactives then, reflects those who have not completed programs within the FAC Department. There is no attempt to suggest that these "inactive" students might not, at some point in their lives, complete their unfinished college degrees. The inactive married students (n = 41) of both undergradu- ate and graduate programs were similar to the other groups in many ways. They were white (82.9%), 65.9 percent were parents during their last year at school, and their mean length of marriage was between five and nine years. A majority of these women (74%) had partners who were employed in independent, professional, or supervisory positions. Most (74%) had partners whose yearly income was above $10,000 and most of the men had had some college education. The frequency of nonemployment distinguishes this group of women; 44 percent (n = 18) were not employed at all while they were students. Further, many were not parents (n = 15). While more (69.9%) of the inactive group than the total sample (63.9%) were parents during their last year of school, the mean level of their satisfaction with child care was 2.85 which is lower than the total group mean of 3.66. Perhaps these dissatisfied parents felt it necessary to postpone their education to care for their children; yet, for most the oldest child was school age or teenage. 64 Lack of funds was given some measure of importance in their decision to leave by 46 percent (n = 19) of the inactives, 26.8 per- cent attributed some importance to the fact that their schooling was hard on the family, and 26.8 percent felt other reasons were very important in their decision to leave. While 76.7 percent of the total sample of married women reported some period of nonattendance either for a time after high school or when they stopped college to return later, it was slightly less true of the ianctives (71.8%). The questionnaire had, however, caught them at a period, or one of the periods, of nonattendance in their lives. Role Strain Scores On a 6-point scale the range of average scores of role strain goes from a low of 1.45 to a high of 4.80. The mean is 3.08 and the median, 3.05. There is a distribution of 21 percent of the respond- ents registering a low degree of role strain with scores in the range of 1.45 to 2.5. The middle range of role strain, from scores of 2.51 to 3.50, encompasses 51 percent of the sample. The high averages of role strain, from 3.51 to the top score registered, 4.80, include 28 percent of the respondents. Figure 2 shows the distribution of role strain scores by degree program. Tests of Hypotheses From the literature on married college women, it seemed evident that role strain would be a factor in their lives. The 65 Strain 19 Medium ‘, O 0.6.0.0...6.0.| Unresolved Role H // 44440404 '...............A IOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA '........ .... .90A 0000 OOOONONS "......‘ 99000060 ......... ........ '........ 6000000 ' ....... l........ 7'06... 6. VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ....... 00009000 ..... .. ... 090 .o.‘ ... ... 0009 00060 OOOOONONONOOONO ODIOOID. 7.7 53.8 O O O 0.. . . . O .-.l. o . . . 090 000 0 09000 . .OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. 0 O 0 0.6 O O <. 7.0900000... 00090 90000.... .00000000 00009000. .OOOOOOO. 0.0.00.9. v........ 0.9.. 0.0009. .0 0 000 09900000. ... .I. ... . ....... . m.09000000 / 0000.009... 7 4 3000000090000... 00066096 IIIIII v........ 09009006 .00090090 ........ II ..O.O.O.Q.O.O.O.O .OOOOOOOO. ..... 090 90000000. #000000... {000.090.000.013 I.’ IIYHOOOOOOOO 80 60 40 20 0 Master's Bachelor's n=63 n=65 by Degree Program. Figure 2.--Role Strain 66 variables that might influence role strain became important ques- tions, particularly those factors that might be inherent in the lives of the individuals. Hence, the first hypothesis. Hypothesis 1: The stage of the family career of the married college woman is related to the degree of role strain. A one-way analysis of variance was performed with age of oldest child indicating stage of the family career. Table 7 indi- cates the findings; there was no significant difference between groups on role strain. Stage of the family career was also tested by using number of years married. Still there was no significant difference between groups on role strain as shown in Table 8. TABLE 7.--Summary Data and Analysis of Variance for Stage of Family Career by Age of Oldest Child and Role Strain. Number of School Children Infant Preschool Age Teen Older n 50 5 8 22 29 14 Means 3.04 3.01 2.93 3.05' 3.17 3.21 Standard Deviation .77 .57 .67 .72 .64 .50 Source df ss MST F P Between Groups 5 76.6 15.32 .313 N.S. Within Groups 122_ 5973.5 48.96 TOTAL 127 6050.1 67 .TABLE 8.--Summary Data and Analysis of Variance for Stage of Family Career by Number of Years Married and Role Strain. Years Married 0-4 Years 5-9 Years 10-14 Years 15 + Years _n 51 24 15 28 Mean 3.06 3.13 2.92 3.15 SD .77 .70 .50 .65 Source df SS MS F p Between Groups 3 54.7 18.23 .37 NS Within Groups 114; 5606.7 49.18 TOTAL 117 5661.4 These data give no support to the hypothesis of Rollins and Cannon (1974:281) that role strain would be greatest and marital satisfaction least at the middle stages of the family career when number of roles, role responsibilities, and role conflicts are apt to be heaviest. Nor do these findings indicate that role strain is lower in the early stages of marriage when roles are thought to be less numerous. Role strain does not appear to be a necessary concomitant with multiple roles at any particular period in a person's married life. While there is no significant difference between groups on role strain means, there is a slight tendency for less role strain in those married from 10 to 14 years and among those who have an 68 oldest child of preschool age than in other groups. Since these may be two distinct groups of married college women, that is, those married 10 to 14 years may have children older than preschool age and those whose oldest child is in preschool may be married fewer than 10 years, it further suggests that some other factors than stage of family career must be influencing role strain. Just as Rollins and Cannon (1974) concluded that stage of the family life cycle has no further utility as an independent variable in studies of marital satisfaction, the findings of this study suggest its inappropriateness in role strain studies also. Hall (1972) measured coping strategies while this study measured role strain. He found that life stage showed no con- sistent trends in the type of coping employed. Rather than life stage, role strain or the use of resolution techniques may be dependent upon life style variables such as the character of the school setting or employment setting, the sheer quantity of work, the family's attitude, and also personality characteristics. Hypothesis 2: The more personal and family resources a married college woman perceives she has, the less role strain there will be. More resources, as stated, indicate that there may be a combination of diverse, supportive resources which will assist the individual to perceive little conflict or stress in multiple roles, rather than simply a matter of the sheer number or amount of an individual resource. A multiple regression table was programmed in which the two factors, family resources and personal resources, were entered as 69 discrete totals. In step one, the best predictor of role strain was selected as family resources, F = 26.6 (p < .001). When the personal resources coefficient was added to the equatibn, its con- tribution was not significant indicating its lack of strength in predicting role strain. To investigate the relationship of the particular components of family resources and personal resources, a regression table was constructed in which physical, emotional, and financial averages, health, need for achievement and management skills scores were entered separately. The summary table (Table 9) indicates that this analysis was a more sensitive and revealing construction of the significant predictors of role strain. Only the first five steps of the analysis are presented, since the addition of the remaining variables did not significantly alter the outcome. Thus, the addi- tion of the sixth and seventhvariables, need for achievement and financial average, each increased the multiple r only .001 and did not improve the predictive equation. In fact, the addition of all four variables after the first three increased the multiple r only to .626, thus improving the variance explained (r2) only .04. Hence, the most powerful predictors of role strain are the family resource component, emotional average, the personal health of the individual, and the physical average, another family resource, in that order. Together, these variables account for 35 percent of the variance in role strain average scores. Considering all seven variables accounts for 39 percent of the variance. 70 The hypothesis as stated, however imprecise, finds support in this study. It is clear that a very specific resource from the family, essentially the perception of their emotional support is vitally important to helping the married college woman avoid role strain. Unless they are seen as approving her role as student and providing her with encouragement in her pursuit of a degree, she will have difficulty in meeting their expectations in her family role. I These findings support those studies of women graduate students (Feldman, 1973) and those of employed women (Astin, 1969; Bailyn, 1964; Poloma, 1972; Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971; Weil, 1961) which conclude that without the partner's support, additional roles are very stressful for women. On her part, good health to meet the heavy demands of multi- ple roles appears as the most important personal resource. Having the energy and the stamina to keep a family household functioning and to be a student as well as an employee as most of these subjects are, requires considerable physical fitness over a period of time. The requirement of a high energy level--or just plain feeling like doing all that work--may be prerequisite to undertaking it. Related to both of these variables is the family's willing- ness to give physical kinds of help--"pitching in"--by taking over responsibilities in the home and preserving a study area of the home. Unlike many employment roles, the student role requires school work that must be accomplished outside of class., For most 71 students, this means reading, studying, and writing will be done at home. To have a reserved place for study as well as the recognition by the family of the legitimate and essential nature of the activity carried on there is an important physical resource. In effect, this variable testifies both to specific aid given to facilitate role enactment and also to the space needed to engage in role-appropriate behavior. TABLE 9.--Summary of Significant Steps in the Regression Analysis of Resources Influencing Role Strain (n = 124). Step Variablea r r.2 F p l. Famres: Emotional Average .480 .230 12.98 <.001 2. Persres: Health .557 .310 13.64 <.001 3. Famres: Physical Average .590 .349 2.71 <.05 4. Persres: Satisfaction from own achievements .613 .375 5.24 <.001 5. Persres: Management Skills .624 .390 2.85 <.025 Note. Since it was necessary to have complete information for each subject on each variable in this analysis, the n decreased from 133 to 124. aThe individual variables are components of two main groups of resource variables: family resources (famres) and personal resources (persres). 72 Further analysis of frequency data on selected attributes of women with high role strain indicates that a very distinctive dif- ference between them and women with low role strain is on the dimen- sion of study space. Women with high role strain had a mean score of 3.9 (somewhat agree) on the scale item (115,[L 130) on adequate space to have a quiet study area. Conversely, low role strain women had an average score of 5.2 indicating agreement that they had such space. Having a place to accomplish her school work may lessen the amount of role stress with which she must cope. This study measured the respondent's perception of space adequacy. There was no objective measurement of study space. Thevariablelisted as satisfaction from own achievements is an abbreviation of the personal resources scale item (117): "I derive primary satisfaction from my own accomplishments rather than from the accomplishments of others who were close to me.‘' Interestingly, this variable had a positive correlation with role strain. Lipman—Blumen (1972) found that women who were nontradi- tional in their sex—role concepts felt this way. As a measure of need for achievement, and perhaps autonomy, it may indicate that women who derive such satisfactions are more alienated from their families and thus, perceiving more role strain. Further, the finding questions the validity of need for achievement as a personal resource. Management skills--the ability to plan time, to establish priorities, and delegate responsibilities--speak to an efficiency 73 mode which may make multi-role enactments more possible and thus alleviate role strain. Pearson correlation coefficients generated among the varia- bles early in the study indicated that management skills and age beginning the school program were positively correlated (r = .27, p < .001), suggesting that these skills may be learned with time and experience. That is, one learns to be a skillful manager and employing these practices may help to avoid role strain. Since management skills correlate even more strongly with the family resources aspect of physical average (r = .47, p < .001), it suggests a coordination of family effort: salient roles established by the married woman student, the delegation by her of responsibilities and those jobs assumed by others, and the time and space carefully planned to execute primary role expectations. The married college woman's ability to manage multiple roles is dependent upon her family's attitudes toward her schooling and their willingness to help her. If these inputs are seen as assist- ing her to deal with multiple role obligations, it is also true that they contribute to her positive attitudes and comfort within the family system. As her output of energy, these feelings may at the same time be seen both as positive feedback for the family and as a family energy source supporting its cohesiveness and its adap- tation to its environment. Hypothesis 3: The less role strain a married college woman experiences, the more likely she will be to graduate. 74 For this analysis, subjects were divided into six groups according to their degree status in the department (Master's Actives, Bachelor's Actives, Master's Graduates, Bachelor's Gradu- ates, Master's Inactives, and Bachelor's Inactives). The one-way analysis of variance performed showed that there was no signifi- cant difference between groups on role strain average. Thus, there was no support for this hypothesis. (See Table 10.) TABLE 10.--Analysis of Variance Summary Table of Mean Role Strain Scores by Degree Status. Source df F Between Groups 5 1.366* Within Groups 122_ TOTAL 127 *N.S. An additional analysis was performed to gain further insight into the school attendance pattern of this married sample. When employment is considered, the two groups which were employed part time occasionally or part time regularly took significantly more credits per quarter than either those who were not employed or those who were employed full time. Still, role strain did not differ significantly by employment status. Nor is there any sig- nificant difference between mean years to complete a degree and role strain. 75 The fact remains that people's lives differ by the level of inherent stress. The dual career couples whom Bebbington (1973) studied chose to face this kind of stress rather than cope with the conflicts of a life style contrary to their value system. Many married college women have a goal in mind and may be willing to cope with a measure of role stress and some role strain to pursue their own objectives. Kahn e1 a1. (1964) concluded that there are individual tolerances in the degree of stress required to trigger a strain response, but the magnitude of strain when produced is determined by factors other than the stress. Likewise with married college women, there are idiosyncratic differences in the amount of stress in their lives, their susceptibility to strain, and their toler- ance levels to live it through. Highly individualized are the needs, values, and capabilities of these women and these forces contribute to strain just as role pressures do. An outcome of the stress of multiple roles may be a high level of strain, but accompanying it may be increased stress toler— ance. By success in adapting to, and living with difficult stresses, an individual may increase her ability to meet stress. Sustaining a moderate or high level of strain may be a reflection of a willing- ness to live with a temporary situation, or it may reflect an individual in the process of seeking adjustive mechanisms. The role strain scores do not distinguish the inactive subjects in this sample, rather, both inactives and the remaining 76 subjects have similar ranges of scores. Factors other than role strain itself cause some to leave the school scene and the rest to see it through to the end. Hypothesis 4: The less role strain a married college woman experiences, the higher satisfaction she feels. Here it is hypothesized that role strain would be deleter- ious to overall satsifaction level-~both marital and life satis- faction--while in school. A zero-order product-moment correlation of this relation- ship is -.414. In addition, it was significant at the .001 level of probability and explains 17% of the variance. The correlation is also in the predicted negative direction, that is, the more role strain, the lower the satisfaction. Since role strain accounts for a relatively small amount of the variance in satisfaction scores, it was decided to employ a multiple regression analysis with other selected variables measured in this study. Emotional average, financial average, health, and management skills were used along with the role strain average in the step-wise multiple regression program. The results as displayed in Table 11 indicate that emotional average correlated more highly with satisfaction than did role strain, accounting for 30% of the variance. The emotional average is a measure of the extent to which the family of the married college woman is perceived as giving her psychological support by holding positive and encouraging attitudes about her school role. 77 For the woman in multiple roles, perception of her family's positive attitudes and support contributes to her life satisfaction and her marital satisfaction. In terms of role theory, husbands are not suffering from "role discrepancy." Burr (1973:45) has used this term to stand for feelings held by one partner that the spouse doesn't fulfill role expectations. If the husband is perceived as sending positive support rather than attitudes indicating she's not doing her job in her family role, he is alleviating her role strain and thereby, contributing to her satisfaction. In this perspective, this finding would lend support to Burr's (1973:45) proposition that the number of role discrepancies in the marital relationship influences marital satisfaction in an inverse, linear relationship. The next variable of significance is financial average. Even if the married college woman can afford household help or any of the extra services that make her school work load less burden- some, it does not necessarily mean that life will be more satisfy- ing. The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient of financial average and satisfaction is -.104 (p < .01). This finding would tend to support that of Dizard (1968) who found a negative relationship between family income and marital satisfaction. In a multiple regression program which enters the best pre- dictor into the equation first, and then the next best, it was not until step three that role strain entered. The three significant 78 steps are presented in Table 11. None of the remaining variables contribute any significant change in satisfaction scores. TABLE ll.--Summary of Significant Steps in the Multiple Regression Analysis Influencing Satisfaction Scores (n = 120). Step Variable r r2 F p l Emotional Average .549 .301 30.06 .001 2 Financial Average .583 .340 8.16 .01 3 Role Strain Average .610 .372 4.16 .05 Rollins and Cannon (1974:281) predicted that role strain would have an inverse linear relationship with marital satisfaction; it is confirmed in this study. The Pearson product moment correla- tion between role strain and marital satisfaction while in school produces a coefficient of -.399 (p < .001), but this explains only 16 percent of the variance. These findings support the view of Katz and Kahn (1966) regarding social systems, that "the cement which holds them together is essentially psychological rather than biological" (p. 33). Likewise, the family system is buttressed by the positive and sup- portive attitudes, motivations, habits, and expectations of its members. Dizard (1968) has pointed to companionate marriages as encouraging high consensus between spouses and that increasing differentiation of roles causes some losses in happiness. Perhaps 79 the clue lies here: that the problem of married women students, or even of married employed women (and their husbands), is to fulfill role expectations of multiple roles but still manage to establish or maintain a companionate marriage. It is expected that not only consensus but affect also would be an important part of companionate marriages. These are marriages in which emotional resources would be expected to be high. Those who may be successful in doing so probably have low role strain scores and high satisfaction scores. It appears that many of the women in this study are approaching this goal. Examining the marital satisfaction scores of women with low and high role strain for the period when they were in school, shows clearly there is a difference. Marital satisfaction average is 4.98 for women with low role strain and 4.11 for women with high role strain. These averages indicate that women with low role strain perceived satisfying interaction with their partners as a daily occurrence. Whereas women with high role strain found such inter- action satisfaction only on a weekly basis. -Women scoring high on role strain have not, on the average, established the family role as their most important role to the extent that low role strain women had. As a result, their perceived partner's attitudes toward these priorities indicated less approval than that of the partners of women with low role strain. It is probable that discrepancy was reflected in the lowered satisfaction SCOT‘ES . 80 Another finding in relation to role strain and satisfaction is on the variable of guilt. Women with low role strain were far more likely to strongly agree that they felt no guiltin pursuing their education and interests. Women with high role strain however, were more likely to experience guilt about pursuing their education. For these women, the guilt may have been due to "role discrepancy" in not placing the family role as their highest priority, with the consequent lowering in terms of the husband's attitude toward her schooling. In this study, guilt, as a dimension of role strain, is thought to be a product of the felt difficulty in meeting role obligations. Therefore, guilt may be the consequence of particular choices and behaviors, such as shown in Table 12. TABLE 12.--Comparison of Role Strain Groups on Agreement on Role Priorities, Partner's Attitude, and Guilt. Role Strain Low High Family role most important 66.7% 43.2% 'Perception of partner's agreement with role priorities 96.3% 70.3% Feelings of guilt 7% 50% 81 Findings Related to Objectives Objective 1: To identify the particular personal resources, family resources, and other characteristics (age, stage of family career, employment status) which may influence role strain among married college women. Among married women students with low role strain, 16 (57%) of the 28 reported being parents during their last year of school. In terms of child care, 10 of the 16 reported being satisfied or very satisfied. Since there were 18 nonrespondents to the question, it is assumed that the remaining six parents had older children for whom child care arrangements were inappropriate. For those 38 students who had high role strain, 59.5 percent reported being parents during their last year of school. Of those parents responding to the child care question (n = 17) their satis- faction with those arrangements ranged broadly with an equal number being dissatisfied as were satisfied, with a modal group who responded feeling both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The mean level of satisfaction was 2.9 on a 5-point scale, clearly below the 4.7 indicated by the low role strain group. Among the low role strain group, employment did not appear to affect role strain as only six were not employed at all, while most (n = 13) were employed part time regularly. The percentage of participation in various categories of employment differs indicating a greater number of working women among those with high role strain. Table 13 shows these variations. Considering the partner's role in alleviating role strain, his occupation, income, and education are of interest. While many 82 TABLE 13.--Percent Employed Among Married Women Students with Low and High Role Strain. Low High Not at all 21.4 (%) 15.8 (%) Vacations or Occasionally Part Time 14.3 23.7 Part Time Regularly 46.4 39.5 Full Time 17.9 21.1 of the partners of women with low role strain are students (n = 6), the modal group (n = 10) are professionals. (See Table 14.) Hus- bands of the high role strain group are less apt to be students. The partners of low role strain women are either in train— ing for or holding professional or supervisory positions (74%) in their occupations reflecting their high level of education; 68 percent have college degrees, of whom many had done graduate work or attained attained graduate degrees. This confirms the findings of Doty (1966), Feldman (1973), and Richter and Whipple (1972) that a highly educated group of men support their partner's aspirations in academic endeavors. In contrast, only 55.6% of the partners of high role strain women are in student, professional, or supervisory positions and a greater percentage are in the less prestigious occupations of cleri- cal, sales, and factory work. Only 42 percent of the partnersryfhigh role strain women were college graduates, had undertaken graduate 83 studies, or completed graduate degrees. Perhaps one source of sent conflict may result from the greater frequency of educational dis- parity between them. TABLE l4.--Partner's Occupation Among Role Strain Groups. Low Group High Group Category -—-——————— n % n % Student 6 22 2 5.6 Clerical, sales, or factory 5 19 11 30.6 Independent 2 7 5 13.8 Professional 10 37 11 30.6 Supervisory _:$ _15_ _7_ 19.4 TOTAL 27 100 36 100.0 Data on partner's income provides no clue as to differences between low and high role strain groups. The range of incomes (less than $5,000 to more than $30,000) and the means (between $5,000 and $14,999) are very similar for the two groups. The low role strain group reports 64.1 percent of partners' incomes between $5,000 and $14,999; the high group indicated 63.1 percent of partners' incomes fell within that range. On the basis of this sample, it cannot be stated that partner's income directly influences role strain. Women students with low role strain reported themselves in good health. On a scale of six points, their mean score was 5.6. Women students with high role strain, on the other hand, had a mean 84 score on health of 4.0; they were only "somewhat" in agreement that their health was good. Perhaps one of the most important findings is that 85 per- cent of women with low role strain reported that things went well between themselves and their partners much of the time as shown in Table 15, whereas only slightlymore than halfof the 38 high role strain women perceived that things went well most or all of the time. TABLE 15.--Differences Between Role Strain Groups on How Often Things Went Well with Partner While in School. Low Group High Group Category -————————- n % n % Never 0 2 5.3 Rarely 0 2.6 Occasionally O 5 13.2 More often than not 4 14.8 10 26.2 Most of the time 17 63.0 18 47.4 All of the time _6_ 2231; _2_ __jig3 TOTAL 27 100.0 38 100.0 In sum, there are several areas of difference between high and low role strain women. For students with low role strain, hav- ing things go well with the partner most of the time may have been due to their compatible educational and occupational aspirations and accomplishments. Thus, there may not have been a feeling of role discrepancy and the perception of stress due to the multiple 85 roles held. Women students with high role strain perceived their health to be less than good, were less satisfied with child care arrangements, and were more likely to be employed part time occasionally and full time than their counterparts, the students experiencing low role strain. These differences point to some of the problems which may cause role strain for women in multiple roles. Objective 2: To explore role strain resolution methods which may permit a married woman student to perform successfully in school and to graduate. Since role strain averages do not distinguish graduates from nongraduates, and grade point averages run the range from 2.8 to 4.0 among those with low role strain, successful performance in school may be a very idiosyncratic assessment. Indeed, it also depends on who is doing the assessing: her professors, her family, her employers, or she herself. Table 16 indicates the results of the analysis of variance test of the differences between mean grade point average of each role strain group. Although the differences between grade point averages are nonsignificant, the grade point average does drop progressively from the low role strain group (3.525) to the high role strain group (3.310). Is there a personality dimension, such as problem-solving ability, which might influence both one's grades in school and ability to avoid role strain? Although this study views the management technique of estab- lishing priorities as a skill which one takes into a particular role 86 TABLE 16.--Analysis of Variance Results of Grade Point Average by Role Strain Group. Source df F Between Groups 2 2.815* Within Groups 106 TOTAL 108 *N.S. situation, it is a method for handling numerous responsibilities which may prevent role strain from developing. It is an a priori rather than an ex post facto strategy. Nonetheless, establishing priorities is important to examine in terms of its effects upon role strain. A high percentage of both low (89%) and high (82%) role strain women apparently do establish priorities among their responsi- bilities, thus confirming for this sample Poloma's (1972) findings that this is an important technique in the lives of married employed women. However, the results of this study indicate that more criti- cal may be the ordering of priorities to meet with the husband's approval. A majority (67%) of the women whose role strain was low indicated their family role was the most important, as shown in Table 17. The saliency of the family role over school or work roles confirms that these women are similar to the employed women described by Angrist (1972), Blake (1974), and Poloma and Garland (1971). Importantly, nearly all of the women (96%) with low role 87 TABLE l7.--Differences Between Role Strain Groups on Establishing Priorities. Low Group High Group Item __________ Percent Percent Establish priorities 89 82 Family Role Most Important 67 42 strain feel that their partners are in agreement with their role priorities. See Table 12, page 80. Among women experiencing high role strain, 82 percent say they had established priorities, yet only 42 percent of this group considered the family role most important. Furthermore, only 70 percent report that their partners agree with their role priorities. For this group, their priorities have not gained full agreement of the spouse; thus, for them establishing priorities does not serve as a resolution method but rather as a stressor. In this study, three of the role strain scale items purported to be coping techniques were used as indicators of the presence of role strain. Their use by the married college woman deserves some attention. Coping techniques may have a feedback effect which contrib- utes to escalating role strain. For instance, leaving the field by giving up activities may provide escape from one sort of conflict but then propel the individual into another. 88 Kahn et a1. (1964) found that withdrawal is a successful coping procedure only when the focal person is not in close touch with those imposing conflict. It may be that some of these married college women, by giving up activities they enjoyed with their partners and/or families generated much conflict in the continuing relationship. Also, there is the real possibility that eliminating activities with the family caused an internal conflict and strain connected with guilt. Similarly, lowering standards at home or at school may like- wise produce additional role strain for the married college woman due to guilt, disappointment with the self, and possible role dis- crepancy. Bailyn (1964) suggested that for employed women who saw their work roles as extension of the family role there was little cn‘ no conflict. In this study college women with low role strain averages overwhelmingly agreed that their studies were closely related to their other activities and interests and that the knowledge gained helped them in their other roles. Although this study did not investigate the possibility of whether these women had deliber- ately selected college courses compatible with their homemaking or career responsibilities, it would be a form of dissonance reduction if such were the case. Finding associations between the potentially conflictual roles of student and family member would tend to lessen the strain. As such, this process is quite the opposite of any reso- lution attempt in which one would compartmentalize disparate roles. 89 Participation of women in the role of student by credit hours taken per quarter is very similar for both role strain groups. 0f high role strain women, 57.9 percent take less than 12 credit hours per quarter. For low role strain women, 51.9 percent take less than 12 credit hours per quarter. On the quarter system, approximately 12 to 16 credit hours is considered a full student load. Thus, there is little difference in the extent to which each group is involved in the student role and being a part-time student cannot of itself be viewed as a potential resolution technique. In summary, there are no specific methods which can be said to ensure that the married woman will complete her degree. Yet, there are ways of approaching the multiple roles which may lessen strain. Establishing priorities among multiple roles is important, particularly in placing priorities so that the partner is in agree- ment. According to this study, a majority of those women with low role strain have placed the family role at the top of their role priorities and they perceive their partner's agreement in this choice. Seeing a close connection between their studies and their other roles, rather than a discrepancy, appears important for the married woman student. There are suggestions in this study that some coping tech- niques may, in certain circumstances and for certain people, lead to more role strain. One's own personality and life situation fac- tors appear to determine the appropriate resolution methods. The 90 system model leads to the perspective that within the existing family role network lies the key to the most effective resolution technique for each married college woman. Objective 3: To identify personal and family resources and status characteristics (age, stage of family career, and employment) for married women students which may predict school graduation. In order to assess the influence of certain resources and status characteristics on graduation, multiple regression equations were employed for Master's and Bachelor's groups separately. For each sample, the active students in each program were added to increase the number of subjects. The variables employed for each were: age at beginning of program; the number of years married; health; management skills; need for achievement; emotional, finan- cial, and physical resources; employment during school; total satisfaction (a variable combining life satisfaction and marital satisfaction); number of credits per quarter; role strain average; and the use of periods of nonattendance. For the Master's degree sample, there was no significance at any level of the regression equation when a variable entered. The entire table of variables contributed just .345 to the multiple r and explains only .119 of the variance. This finding leads one to believe that this is a very diverse sample of subjects who receive graduate degrees and that other untapped characteristics may be more predictive than are these variables. Because this view of predicting graduation at the Master's level was so unproductive, some of the interrelationships of the 91 variables for these subjects were explored. Pearson product moment correlations were performed between resource and status attributes producing some interesting and significant relationships. It was clear that the longer she had been married or if she were a parent, the fewer credits she took per quarter. If she were employed, she had been married fewer years, was less likely to be a parent, and less likely to have established clear priorities. These characteristics may all be explained by her youth. The Master's graduate who perceived emotional support from her family was more likely to have higher marital satisfaction while in school. The higher her financial resources, the greater her need for achievement and the more likely she was to have established clear priorities among roles. This may reflect the fact that Master's level graduates are older, either they or their husbands are more settled in their professions and are more likely to have higher incomes. Marital satisfaction in school was not only related to emotional resources she perceived, but also the happier she was in her marriage, the higher was her need for achievement. It appears as though perceiving a satisfying relationship with her partner freed her for achievement in other realms. 0r, possibly her tendency to achieve was evident in her marriage as well as in her other roles. Some differences emerge for Bachelor's program graduates. The more credits per quarter they take, the less likely they are to have established clear role priorities. 92 There is a tendency for the younger women to take more cred- its per quarter and to be less likely to have children. Therefore, they have fewer roles and role responsibilities. The data do indi- cate that establishing role priorities is a matter of age and expe- rience. The older they are when they enter the program, the better are their financial resources. The multiple regression equation for the Bachelor's gradu— ates and actives was more fruitful in that the total equation had a multiple r of .579 and explained 34 percent of the variance. The first step, in which employment while a student entered the equation, began with a multiple r of .346. The family resource variable, financial average, with a negative correlation, entered at the second step. Health was the third step variable. 0n the fourth step, the variable role strain entered the equation. Each succeeding step thereafter was nonsignificant. Table 13 shows the first four steps in summary. It appears that for undergraduate students being employed is helpful to gradUation. However, taken with a constellation of other factors it would seem more likely that it is descriptive of the majority of the undergraduate students. Since the family resource variable, financial average, presents a negative correla- tion, it is another indicant of limited financial resources perhaps explaining or at least a concomitant of, the need for employment. Since the age for undergraduate students is younger than for those in the graduate program, fewer family financial resources and the need for employment are more understandable. 93 TABLE l8.--Summary of Significant Steps in the Multiple Regression Analysis of Variables Influencing Graduation (Bachelor's Degree). Step Variable r r2 F p 1 Employed in school .346 .120 6.96 <.001 2 Financial Average .402 .161 3.54 <.01 3 Health .453 .205 4.86 <.01 4 Role Strain Average .520 .271 3.35 <.025 Note. n = 41 The fact that the amount of role strain correlates negatively with the attainment of an undergraduate degree indicates that it makes a small contribution at this point. It has already been indi- cated in Hypothesis 3 that role strain does not vary significantly between the groups of inactives, actives,(w~graduates. It is also possible, according to the Rollins and Cannon (1974) hypothesis, that with the younger age group there are fewer roles and thus, fewer stresses to be handled. Objective 4: To find the relationship of length of time between first matriculation and actual college graduation to role strain. There were adequate data on each of these variables to have 27 subjects who were Master's graduates and 27 subjects who were Bachelor's graduates. Chi square tables were constructed for each sample. The chi square value of 3.76 for the Bachelor's graduates was not significant. None of the tests performed as a part of this particular computer program generated any significance with either 94 years to complete program or amount of role strain as a dependent variable. See Table 19. TABLE l9.--Distribution of Bachelor's Graduates by Years to Complete Program and Amount of Role Strain. Role Strain Years to Complete Program Low Medium High Speeders (3 years) 2 I Traditionalists (4-5 years) 1 Long Termers (6 + years) 2 6 l x2 = 3.76 df= 4 N.S. A similar lack of Significance was found when Master's gradu- ates were selected by years to complete program and role strain. The chi Square value of 3.05 was not significant; nor were any of the tests performed when either variable was used as the dependent variable. Table 20 shows the distribution. There appears to be no relationship between the number of years it takes to complete a degree program and the amount of role strain a married college woman may experience. Both those who speed through their college programs and those who do it slowly experience varying levels of role strain. Nor is there any evidence that the amount of role strain influences how long it takes one to complete a degree program. 95 TABLE 20.--Distribution of Master's Graduates by Years to Complete Program and Amount of Role Strain. Role Strain Years to Complete Program Low Medium High Short Term (2 years) 1 7 2 Average (3-4 years) 4 Long Term (5 + years) 1 5 l x2 = 3.1 df= N.S. Obviously, other factors in these women's lives cause the role strain rather than how they pace themselves through their college programs. Or, other factors than role strain determine how quickly or how Slowly married women undertake their college programs. CHAPTER VI SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Summary In the past decade there have been increasing numbers of married women in college and in the labor force along with a ris- ing expectation among young women to be married and employed outside of the home. Research attention has focused largely on the effects upon the family when the mother is employed. Less interest has been evident in married women college students and the consequences of their multiple and diverse roles. The literature has concentrated on mature married women who have returned to school or those who are graduate students. Little is known about women who marry in college and continue their studies or about undergraduate married women who have never stopped going to school. Little was available on the feelings of conflict among roles, or from role overload. The research logically pointed to the need to investigate role strain among married women as college students and specifically assessing their perceptions of their situa- tions. Therefore, role strain was used as both a dependent and an independent variable. This main variable was examined from the point of view of role theory. Stage of the family career was hypothesized as an 96 97 influence on role strain, suggesting that the number of family roles would change with the length of marriage or age of oldest child. Additionally, specific family resource variables (emotional, financial, and physical) and personal resource variables (health, management skills, and need for achievement) were predicted to influence role strain. When used as an independent variable, it was hypothesized that the less role strain experienced, the more likely the married college woman would be to graduate and further, the higher satis- faction she would feel. To research this problem empirically, the graduates, drop- outs, and those active students who had completed 90 percent of their credit hours in the Master's or Bachelor's program in the Family and Consumer Resources Department at Wayne State University were mailed questionnaires. There was an overall return rate of 32 percent which produced a total of 354 potential cases. Of these, 133 met the marital status criterion. After the data were gathered, analysis was done by computer. The hypothesis testing was com- pleted by analysis of variance, correlation, and multiple regression techniques. The results supported two of the hypotheses. Perception of family and personal resources does have an influence on role strain especially due to the influence of perceived emotional support given. The moderate correlation coefficient of .48 was significant at the 98 .001 level of probability. Added to the regression equation next was health of the individual, physical support given by the family, satisfaction from her own achievements, and her management skills which accounted for the correlation of .624 with a significance at .025 level of probability. State of the family career tested by analysis of variance, both by number of years married and age of oldest child, showed no significant relationship with role strain resolution. These findings confirm those of other studies (Rollins & Cannon, 1974; Hall, 1972) and question the utility of stage of the family career as an independent variable in studying marital satis- faction, coping strategies, and role strain. As a variable, stage of family career certainly has an important function in studies on parenting and other inter-generational relations, in housing and resource requirements and utilization, as well as in research on the use of individual and family resources such as leisure time and management skills. As an independent variable, role strain is not related to whether or not the married college woman will graduate. The analy- sis of variance performed by degree status in the department indi- cated no significant difference on role strain means between gradu- ates, actives, and inactives. Since role strain scores correlated negatively with satis- faction (r = -.4l4,p < .001) to only a moderate extent, a multiple regression equation was employed to find any other variables 99 influencing satisfaction. When emotional average, financial aver- age, health, and management skills were used in the step-wise multiple regression, emotional resources, financial average, and then role strain average emerged as the significant influences on satisfaction Scores. The perceived psychological support given by family members --especially the partner--has been indicated as being critical for married working women. This study confirms its influence for married college women also. The negative influence of financial average in terms of satisfaction suggests that being able to afford services does not ensure satisfaction. It may indicate that individuals derive satisfaction from accomplishing their own respon- sibilities without assistance. On the other hand, being unable to afford paid help may encourage a more cooperative spirit among other family members. The ensuing activity serves to strengthen interaction and thus, satisfaction. Women in this study not only combined school responsibilities with homemaking but the majority were employed on a regular basis, thus confirming earlier studies showing a trend toward the expecta- tion of multiple roles. In effect, the dream of many contemporary women, that is, "to have it all"--marriage, family, career, higher education--is being actualized by this sample of women. Perhaps this sample of urban married college women is unique in that they are self-selected with relatively low levels of role strain. These are women who believe they can manage multiple roles 100 and do. If they had apprehensions concerning their ability to become students,they probably would not have undertaken the respon- sibility in the first place. Further, they would not have been able to even begin the program without the partner's and family support. This study points clearly to the fact that the urban uni- versity serves a particular function in the lives of its community residents by providing the opportunities for higher education while they carry on the other business of their lives. Most of these people do not reserve a period of their lives to being "just stu- dents." Not only are multiple roles for women more possible in an urban setting, and perhaps more socially acceptable, but also many of these families are willing and able to provide the environment in which the wife/mother perceives she has the emotional and physical resources to pursue her own goals. The amount of role strain experienced and the satisfaction achieved suggests that an approach toward more companionate marriages-~in the sense of sharing tasks so that each may pursue desired goals--is happening in the lives of many of these college women. Since these women lead full lives with concurrent multiple roles, establishing priorities among their responsibilities is an important managerial task. Those who do set priorities which are in agreement with the husband's appear to fare better in terms of family satisfaction. In this study, the majority of women with low role strain had placed the family role first and perceived their 101 partner's agreement with this priority. The finding that the emo- tional support of the family is a critical factor in minimizing role strain underscores the need for agreement on priorities. Involvement in the student role, by credit hours taken per quarter, does not differ by low and high role strain groups. This particular sample of married college women does not indicate that the amount of role strain experienced is necessarily tied to being either a part-time or full-time student. Rather, the view should be taken that the amount of involvement in one role works in constella- tion with the other factors in the married college woman's life to influence role strain. The findings of this study are put into proper perspective by the systems model: the individual family member can undertake independent, extra-familial roles without the perception of con- flict only when family role systems (i.e., the organization of activities) and the support systems (i.e., the flow of energy) are in harmony. The extent of organization of family role systems and their inter-dependencies, as well as the amount of emotional support available, are unique to each family. Varying too, are the degree of organization and amount of support required by the individual who asSumes multiple roles. The responses of this sample indicate that multiple roles can be carried on by married women students. The degree of perceived role strain is dependent upon her psychologi- cal need and social factors in her environment. Typically, women of high role strain were more likely than low role strain women to be dissatisfied with the child care 102 arrangements for their children, to be employed on a part-time or full-time basis, and to feel that their health was not good. Limitations The limitations of this study were: (1) that the sample population was a specific group of women who had been enrolled in a home economics department of a large, urban university; (2) the respondents were self-selected which further biased the responses; (3) the study relied on the respondent's ability to recall accu- rately perceptions and experiences after a period of years may have elapsed; (4) the study did not measure personality variables to the extent it might have in order to assess the intra—personal stresses of the married woman student; and (5) better questions on the character of role stresses which produce role strain could have been formulated to give a better pieture of why some women experience more strain as married college students than do others. Unexplored in this study are other personality dimensions including needs and goals which may determine susceptibility to role strain. Questions designed to assess the individual's need for affiliation may be more germane to role choices and feelings of role strain than need for achievement. A measure of the locus of control might explore the relationship of one's sense of internal or external source of control and role strain. Such a measure might uncover feelings of obligation about role expectations. Feelings of the indi- 'vidual about traditional sex roles and self-perceived obligations to roles might tap more effectively the person-role conflict which may be an important type of stress producing role strain. 103 While family support is a critical factor, other findings of this study suggest that the sociological forces in one's life do not, by themselves, account for all of the stresses producing role strain. The concepts of role theory must take into account personality fac- tors which influence how the individual perceives the social environ- ment and that person's own role in it. Implications The implications of this project for further research would first be the advisability of replication on a broad, random sample of married college women. If these findings hold up, new studies should be undertaken to find what pre-marital or family arrangements are established to facilitate the ease with which women may undertake multiple roles. The constructed and employed role strain scale demonstrated its usefulness and reliability and might be utilized in further studies of married college women. This study raises questions about the general utility of resolution techniques. Specifically, there are individual needs which must be met and certain coping techniques may block the oppor- tunitites for fulfillment. Since the needs, and the routes to ful- fillment, are unique to each situation, more research with a social psychological focus is needed to determine the appropriate action for the woman student within the family system. Especially needed are data that indicate to what extent women with multiple role responsibilities increase communication within the family role network to accomplish joint problem solving. 104 Finally, there are many questions raised about the husbands of married women college students. Future research should explicate how the husbands of women who have low role strain differ from the husbands of those who have high role strain. Beyond research implications, there are some practical appli- cations for this information. Primarily important is the socialization given to both boys and girls in our society. Contemporary social forces have made multiple roles for women not only a possibility, but the expecta— tion of many. While many male and female children may observe within their families the multiple roles of women, this study suggests, according to respondent's perceptions, that there is frequently less opportu- nity to observe the man's homemaking role and his supportive efforts to sustain a woman with numerous role obligations. Under these circumstances, there is great need for the importance of the father's role in the family to be made explicity clear. It is likely that men, as well as women, will continue to have an economic responsibility to the family. Additionally, a necessary part of both instrumental roles is the cooperative accom- plishment of homemaking tasks to a mutually acceptable standard. As these instrumental functions become more cooperatively undertaken, so also must the expressive responsibilities be shared. In the past, wives have been viewed as providing the love, support, and emotional haven for other family members. Appropriately, this 105 responsibility is also assumed by husbands to provide the emotional support needed by women who are undertaking new roles beyond the home. Mothers, and even fathers, may encourage daughters to get an education, to have a career, and to get married and have a family. Yet, they may not recognize that the timing of these sent- role obligations may be undertaken concurrently rather than sequen- tially. For most married women of today in colleges and/or careers, their experience of multiple roles inside and outside of the home is a novel experience for which previous generations have not been able to prepare their young. Now, it behooves today's generation to so model and interpret multiple role opportunities and responsibilities to girls and boys that in their future adulthood unreasonable role expectations will not be held which produce the stresses resulting in role strain. Educators from kindergarten through college must recognize that the stereotyping of role expectations may do unnecessary damage to personal happiness and marital stability. More instruction should be given to both boys and girls in management techniques, homemaking Skills, and child development principles which will prepare them more adequately for life-long role responsibilities. Family counselors, college and university counselors, and faculty advisors should be alert to the potential stresses of the married woman student. This study illuminates areas for her consid- eration: the importance of her family's emotional support, the 106 availability of a quiet study space, her role priorities, the impor- tance of meaningful and related programs of study, and the availabil- ity of child care arrangements with which she can be satisfied. Education, socialization, and counseling efforts should be directed toward helping women, and men too, to integrate the other- wise disparate roles in their lives. Family ecologists, home economists, family sociologists and others who teach about the family can find in this study evidence of the interactive effects of positive supportive attitudes on the well-being and satisfaction both of its individual family members and its feedback effects on the total family. APPENDICES 107 APPENDIX A PRETEST INSTRUMENT 108 Please answer the attached questions as you first interpret them. If ggy_confusion arises in your mind about the questions, or if you have comments about individual questions and/or their wordings, please put your comments in the far right column on each page. Additionally, we need your feel- ings about the test in general; you may use the back of each sheet for any remarks. We greatly appreciate your cooperation with us on the development of this scale. Our special thanks for your participation and prompt return of this material. Sincerely, Mary Jane S. Van Meter 109 Please answer the following statements by circling the appropriate response number: Strongly Disagree . Disagree . Somewhat Disagree . Somewhat Agree . Agree . . Strongly Agree . In thinking about my situation as a college student and a family (Husband, and children if any) person, it is generally true that: 1. 10. 11. I feel my family (husband, children) has developed positive attitudes about my being in school. My family (husband, children) is very willing to help me meet my school reSponsibilities. I feel that there is adequate time to do everything I am supposed to do in each of my roles. I often plan my school work as I attend to my other duties. I experience good health. My family is encouraging and supportive of my going to school. We have few financial problems in paying for my education. Time pressures are the most frequent source of problems for me. I am able to get my school work done on time. We can afford help at home to lessen my responsibilities there. I can afford typing, copying services, tutorial help, etc., to make my school work load easier. 110 Strongly Disagree 1 Disagree N Somewhat Disagree Somewhat Agree 4 mmwa—I Agree U'I Strongly (D Q) L 0'? < Comments: In thinking about my situation as a college student and a family (husband, and children if any) person, it is generally true that: 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. I have become more aware of my success in meeting my own goals. There is adequate space at home for me to find a quiet area to study. Others in the family have taken over some of my home responsi- bilities to help me out. I derive primary satisfaction from my own accomplishments rather than from the accomplish- ments of others who are close to me. I am always tired. I plan my time carefully so that I can get everything done. I find I have more conflicts with my husband when I am enrolled in school. My husband and friends out- side of school share my views of women's roles. I have established priorities among all my responsibilities. I have lowered my standards of performance for myself in my home responsibilities. I have delegated some of my non- school responsibilities to others to save my time. I have had to give up other activities that I enjoy. I have experienced an improved sense of self worth since becoming a student. I am in college to please other people, not myself. 111 Strongly Disagree Disagree N Somewhat Disagree 3 Somewhat Agree 4 Agree 01 Comments: In thinking about my situation as a college student and a family (husband, and children if any) person, it is generally true that: 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. I have established a routine in my activities to help every- thing run smoothly. I feel under pressure in my other roles. I feel very adequate in my school performance. I have gained knowledge which has enabled me to handle my other responsibilities. My family doesn't expect as much help from me when I am in school. I wish I had graduated before taking on other responsibilities. As a result of my schooling, 1 have adopted some new attitudes about women's roles which are not compatible with my husband's views. I have felt my studies were closely related to my other interests and responsibilities. I have sometimes lowered my standards of performance for myself at school in order to get everything done. I often cannot adequately meet my other responsibilities. Generally, I have felt good about the way everything has been going. I have felt no guilt about pursuing my education and interests. The amount of work I have to do interferes with how well it gets done. 112 Strongly Disagree Disagree Somewhat Disagree Somewhat Agree Agree Strongly 0) O) S. C) < Comments In thinking about my situation as a college 5% § 5% E '3 student and a family (husband, and children 5 g’ g’ g g’ 3 g g g 3 if any) person, it is generally true that: 3:, r x 5,33 E3, 3, :3 3, mo 0 mo «11:: < 40:: Coments 39. I try very hard to comply with my family's, the university's and other expectations of me. 1 2 3 4 5 6 In order to assess the utility of the scale for our purposes, we need the following information: 40-41. Your age 42. Your racial background: (circle one) White . . . . . 1 Black . . . . . . . 2 Other . . . . . 3 43-44. How many years have you been married? 45. Your husband's primary occupation at present: (circle one only) Unemployed. Student . Clerical, sales, or factory work Independent business (small parts, manufacturer, service) Professional role (teacher, social worker, consultant) Supervisory capacity in large organization (department 01¢de head, Foreman). . 6 46. If you have children, please indicate how many children you have in each range: 1. Infant (0 - 2 years) 2. Preschool Age (3 - 5 years) 3. School Age (6 - 12 years) 4. Teen Age (13 - 18 years) 5. Older (19 years or older) 47. Are you working currently? (circle one) Unemployed. Part- time occasionally . Part- time regularly Full-time DOOM-J If you would like to receive information about the ultimate instrument employed and the outcome of this study, please sign your name and an address which would be valid for the next year (1975-76). 113 APPENDIX B INTRODUCTORY LETTER 114 ‘NVIKTY'IQ IE EB'IVAKCF ID IJ'IJ I‘V'IE FEES I 131? COLLEGE OF LIIIIAL ARTS DETROIT. HICHIGAN 4.803 OEPARTMCNT OF FAMILY AND CONSUMER RESOURCES “ay 7 ’ l975 Dear Friend, ”A college education is just not important....” or, so goes some current Opinion. Do you agree with this? Do you think that this is true for most women? We know that as a women you have encountered some special problems in the student role. Is it all worthwhile contending with the hassles, pressures and overload? Or, is it just not worth the price? Actually, very little scientific data is available concerning women's schooling experience in the context of their total lives. How does schooling fit (or maybe, not fit) into the lives of women students? The Family and Consumer Resources Department (formerly Home Economics) is conducting an extensive research study among our student p0pulation of the last ten years. We are contacting those who left before finishing a degree in this department, as well as the graduates, for all responses are extremely important to us! How did your experience in this department fit into your schooling pattern? In the next week, we shall be mailing a questionaire dealing with these topics. Your response will help determine how we can better serve as an important force for women within the university. A survey of women students' needs, such as this, is most fitting in this, International Women's Year. With your help our study can be a significant contribution to the understanding of the needs of all urban university women as well as to our own department. Be assured that your response will be treated with confidentiality. We shall ask you not to sign your name to the questionaire or to reveal yourself in any identifiable manner. In a study such as this it is necessary to hear from everyone about her experience whether that experience was positive or negative. Be looking for our questionaire, you should receive it soon. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, [Am 43 5W" tué 777 x/W km fun» Esther D. Callard Mary ane Van Meter Chairman Project Director 115 APPENDIX C FINAL QUESTIONNAIRE 116 VVIALTY'II ID ES'IIIKII‘IE ‘EIjbqu‘V'IE £2151] HDTV COLLEGE OF LIIIRAL ARTS DETROIT. MICHIGAN 4.802 DEPARTMENT or FAMILY AND CONSUMER RESOURCES June I" 1975 Dear Friend: This is the questionnaire we told you about in our recent letter. As you respond, please remember that there are no "right" answers; also that we shall appreciate both positive and negative comments. It is only through such honest criticism that changes in our program can be made. All too often, surveys become inaccurate when people who don't respond hold different views. Your cooperation is sought to guard against that kind of bias. One part of this study is concerned with the role responsibilities of women students. Living arrangements, employment and marital status may all create additional role expectations beyond the student role. Actual data on these additional responsibilities of women students is very limited. Your experience and how it worked, or did not work, for you is the central focus of this study. Do not sign your name anywhere on the questionnaire. Your individual anonymity is very important to us. If you have any questions, please cali us at 577-2500. When you have completed the questionnaire, please secure the pages together with tape or staple between the lines indicated at the right. Our return address is printed on the back page; just drop the completed questionnaire in the mail, no postagg is necessa_y. Your promptness in returning your completed questionnaire is urgently requested. Our sincere appreciation for your participation in this study. Sincerely, \. / ' A ”72 Q t) /“ b *‘L‘ {Llcr ' Zr' C“ (ca/[21o ([ flail/AAA / / o ' [hf Esther D. Callard Mary ane S. Van Meter Chairman Project Director 117 Tape or ’Staple Card 1 9-10 11-12 13-14 15. 16-18 19-21 -1- Degree program in which you were last enrolled in the Department of Family and Consumer Resources (FAC) at wayne State University (WSU) (CirCIE one) Undergraduate..... so... on... 001 Graduate (Master's)...........2 In which division within the department did you major? (circle one) Undeclared major...........................l Clothing and Textiles...................... Consumer Affairs........................... Foods and Nutrition......... Housing and Interiors.......... 0&1!wa Human Development & Relationships.......... In what year did you first begin your studies for this degree? What age were you when you began your studies for this degree? At what age did you complete this degree or decide to leave the program? Your racial backgrOund: (circle one) m‘ite0000000000000001 Black... 0.0 other 0.....00000.003 000000.002 In terms of your most recent experience in this department, please indicate the number of credit hours you have completed to date (whether or not taken at W.S.U.): (circle one) Bachelor's Degree: 1-39 or. hrs................l 40-100............. lOl-lS9.....................3 over l60....................4 Degree Conferred............5 Year Conferred l9 0.0.0.00.2 118 Master's Degree: 1-15 cr. hrs....... 1 l6-4l.....................2 42-48+....................3 4 Degree Conferred.......... Year Conferred 19 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 3O 31 32 -2- 9. If unfinished, do you intend to complete this degree at some later time? (circle one) No.00000000000000000001 Undecided.............2 If you have not finished this degree, please specify how important each of the following reasons is: (circle one for each statement) Totally Somewhat Somewhat Very unimportant unimportant important important 10. Lack of funds 1 2 3 4 11. Too difficult to get to classes 1 2 3 4 12. Health/medical problems in family 1 2 3 4 13. Moved away 1 2 3 4 14. Poor grades 1 2 3 4 15. Too hard on family 1 2 3 4 16. Family didn't want me to l 2 3 4 17. Other 1 2 3 4 specify 18. If you have finished, or are finishing, your degree in another department or college at N.S.U. or at another institution, please indicate: (circle one) Switched to another dept. at N.S.U. .......... ............1 Transferred to another school, not N.S.U..................2 19. If you are working on, or have received another degree since leaving this department at W.S.U., please indicate: (circle one) Master's Degree..............l Other 3 if Doctoral Degree..............2 spec y 119 -3- 33 20. What was the optimum number of credit hours you could carry per quarter while you were in the F.A.C. Department? (Circle one) 4 or less cr. hrs...................1 5-8 cr. hrs.........................2 9-12 or. hrs........................3 13-15 or. hrs.......................4 16 or more cr. hrs..................5 34—36 21. What is your overall, cumulative grade point average for your most recent experience in this department? How important were each of the following reasons for you to pursue this degree? (circle one for each statement) Totally Somewhat Somewhat Very unimportant unimportant important important 37 22. My family insisted I 2 3 4 38 23. Better job Oppor- tunity/Better pay 1 2 3 4 39 24. Need to accomplish my own goals 1 2 3 4 4O 25. Desire to be an educated person 1 2 3 4 41 26. Future need for income 1 2 3 42 27. Other 1 2 3 4 specify 43-44 28. Please indicate the number of years from enrollment to the completion of your most recent degree from the F.A.C. Dept. at W.S.U. For each of the following, indicate how important each was as a resource for helping you pay for your schooling: (circle one for each statement) Unimportant Somewhat Very Not important important Applicable 45 29. Personal Funds (income or other) 1 2 3 4 46 30. Parents' Funds 1 2 3 4 47 31. Husband's Funds 1 2 3 4 48 32. Scholarship or grant 1 2 3 4 49 33. Loan 1 2 3 4 SO 34. Other 1 2 3 4 specify 120 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 6O 61 62 63 64 -4- -In your decision to finish your degree at W.S.U. or to leave, how important were the following factors: (circle one for each statement) Negatively affected Made no differ- Positively decision to finish ence to decision Affected decision to finish 35. Distance to Campus 1 2 3 36. Availability of trans- portation l 2 3 37. Being in Downtown Detroit 1 2 3 38. Getting to Library 1 2 3 39. Timing of Classes 1 2 3 40. Other 1 2 3 41. What is your present marital status? (circle one) Single0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 I 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Married0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Widowedooooooooooooo000000000000... wa Separated or divorced.............. 42. Were you a parent during your last_year in this department? (circle one) No...........l If not, proceed to question #49. Yes..........2 If so, please fill in how many children in each range: 43. Infant (0-2 years) 44. Preschool (3-5 yrs) 45. School Age (6-12 yrs) 46. Teen Age (13-18 yrs) 47. Older (19 yrs. or more 48. If it was necessary for you to make child care arrangements for any of these children while you attended school, how satisfied were you with these arrangements? (circle one) Very dissatisfied.......................................l Dissatisfied............................................2 Sometimes dissatisfied, sometimes satisfied.............3 Satisfied...............................................4 Very satisfied000.00.0.00.00000.00.00.000..0..0..0.000005 121 -5- While you were a student in the F.A.C. Dept., with whom did you live? (circle one for each statement) Never 1 year 1-2 years 2-3 yrs. More than or less 3 years 65 49. Self, no children with parents or relatives 1 2 3 4 5 66 50. Self, husband, children with parents or other relatives 1 2 3 4 5 67 51. Self, children with parents or other relatives 1 2 3 4 5 68 52. Dormitory 1 2 3 4 S 69 53. Female Friend 1 2 3 4 5 7O 54. Alone 1 2 3 4 S 71 55. Male Friend 1 2 3 4 5 72 56. Husband (Children if any) 1 2 3 4 5 73 57. Children only 1 2 3 74 58. Commune (group of others) 1 2 3 4 5 What was the highest level of education obtained by your parents, and your husband if you were married during this period of your schooling? (circle one for each person) 75F 59. Father 60. Mother 61. Husband 76M Grammar School 1 1 l 77H Some High School High School Graduate Some college or other school College graduate Some graduate school \IO‘U'Iwa \IO‘U‘lJ-‘UQN \IO‘U'ibUJN Graduate or professional degree 78 62. Were you employed while a student in the F.A.C. Dept.? (circle one) Not at all........................................l Vacations and/or part-time occasionally...........2 Part-time on a regular basis......................3 Full‘time00000000.000.00.000.000...0.000.000.0000.“ 122 -6- 79 63. Are you working currently? (circle one) Unemployed.00000000.0000000001 Part-time.............. ..... .2 Full-time0.00.00.000.000.00003 8O 64. Do you work for: (circle one) Unemployed............................1 Private business......................2 Government, except schools............3 Primary or secondary schools..........4 College of university.................5 Self-employed.........................6 Card 2 7 65. Are you working primarily in: (circle one) unemployed...0000000.0.000.00000.0000000.0000..0..00001 Clerical, sales or factory work.......................2 Independent business (service, at home business,etc)..3 Professional role (teacher, consultant)...............4 Supervisory capacity (administrator, dept. head, etc).5 At the right is a picture of a ladder. If at the top of the ladder stands a person who is living the best possible life, and at the bottom stands a person who is living the worst possible life............. 8 66. What step of the ladder do you feel you personally 9 stand on right now? Step no. 8 9 67. What step of the ladder would you say you stood on 7 during the last year of your latest experience in 6 the F.A.C. Dept.? Step no. 5 4 3 2 1 123 10 11 12 13 -7- For the following statements, please indicate the extent of your agreement or disagreement with that statement by circling the appropriate number. 1 - strong disagreement 5 - slight agreement '2 - moderate disagreement 6 - moderate agreement 3 . slight disagreement 7 - strong agreement 4 - neither disagreement nor agreement Strong Strong Disagreement Agreement [_ j T 1 1 1 68. I would rather do something at which I feel confident and relaxed than something which is challenging and difficult. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 69. If I aninot good at something I would rather keep struggling to master it than move onto something I may be good at. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 70. I would rather have a job in which my role is clearly defined by others and my rewards could be higher than average, than a job in which my role is to be defined by me and my rewards are average. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 71. I would prefer a job which is important, difficult and involves a 50% chance of failure to a job which is somewhat important but not difficult. I 2 3 4 5 6 7 124 14 15 16 17 18 19 Strong Disagreement 72. I think more of the future than of the present and past. 73. I would rather learn fun games that most people know than learn unusual skill games which only a few people would know. 74. I prefer competitive situations in which I have superior ability to those in which everyone involved is about equal in ability. 75. I would rather share in the decision-making process of a group than take total responsibility for directing the group's activities. 76. I am more happy about doing something badly than I am happy about doing something well. 77. I would rather try to get two or three things done quickly than spend all my time working on one project. 125 Strong Agreement 'u “—- 20 21 22 23 78. *‘k 79. 80. 81. What was your marital status WHILE YOU WERE A STUDENT in this department at W.S.U.? (circle one) Single, never married000000000.000000... 00000000 0.000000000000000.1* Married, during last year Of school...0000.0000.00..00000000..00.02* Separated, divorced, or husband not present, for more than 2 years before leaving school..........................3* Married, living with husband, most of all of the last Zlears Of your 8Ch°°11ngsosonose-000000.000...oooooooo4** Separated, divorced, or husband away, sometime within the last 2 years of your schooling.........................5** Living together with the same partner of the opposite sex during most of the last 2 years of your schooling......6** PLEASE SKIP TO PAGE 15, QUESTION #140 AND COMPLETE THE QUESTIONNAIRE. PLEASE CONTINUE WITH QUESTION #79 BELOW. When did you marry, or start living together, with the partner indicated above? (circle one) Before oollege..........l After graduating/before grad.school......3 During college... ....... 2 During graduate school...................4 How long had you been married, or living together with that partner when you were a student in the F.A.C. Dept.? (circle one) 0-4 year80000000090001 10-14 year8000000000000000003 5-9 years............2 15—24 years........ ..... ....4 25 years or more ....... .....5 What was your partner's primary occupation at that time? (circle one) Unemployed.................................l Student....................................2 Clerical, sales or factory work............3 Independent business (small manufacturer, service, etc.).............4 Professional role (teacher, social worker, consultant, etc.).........5 Supervisory capacity in large organization (dept. head, foreman, etc.).6 126 24 25 26 27 28 29 3O 31 32 82. 83. -10- Your partner's gross yearly income before taxes at that time? (circle one) Less than $5,000 00.000001 $15,000 - 19,999 0.0.0.00004 $5,000 - 9,999 .........2 $20,000 - 29,999 ..........5 $10,000 - 14,999 .......3 $30,000 and over ..... ..... 6 When you were a student, did your partner's job require any social obligations (traveling, attending company activities, entertaining, etc.) of you? (circle one) Never00000 00000 000.0000 00000 0000000000.. 0000000 1 Sometimes (I or 2 times per year) .............. 2 Often ( 6 or more times per year) ...... ........3 In general, how often did you think that things between you and your partner were going well........... ( circle one for each time) 84. ... while you were in school? 85. ..and now, if you have left school? Never ............... . ...... 1 Never......... .......... ........l Rarely ........ .... ...... ...2 Rarely......... ............... ..2 Occasionally.... ...... .....3 Occasionally ....... .... ......... 3 More often than not... ..... 4 More often than not.... ......... 4 Most of the time...........5 Most of the time................5 All of the time...... ...... 6 All of the time.................6 When you were a student, how important did you consider each of your roles? (circle one for each) 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. Least Somewhat Very Most Important Important Important Important My family (husband) children if any) 1 2 3 4 My schooling 1 2 3 4 My job 1 2 3 4 Other 1 2 3 4 specify What was your partner's attitude toward your priorities? (circle one) Strongly disagreed..........l Somewhat agreed...............4 Disagreed0.000000000000 00000 2 Agreed0000000000000000000000005 Somewhat disagreed..........3 Strongly agreed...............6 127 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 4O 41 42 43 44 45 46 -11- How often would you say that the following events occured between you and your partner while you were in school? (circle one for each statement) 91. 92. 930 94. 95. 96. 970 You felt resentful. You felt misunder- stood. You felt not needed. We laughed together. We calmly discussed something together. We had a stimulating exchange of ideas. We worked together on a project. Once Once Once More or or or About than Twice Twice Twice Once Once per per per per per Never Year Month Week Day Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 l 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 l 2 3 4 5 6 l 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 S 6 l 2 3 4 5 6 How often would you say that partner now that you are out 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. the following events occured between you and your of school? You feel resentful. You feel misunder- stood. You feel not needed. We laugh together. We calmly discuss something together. We have a stimulating exchange of ideas. We work together on a project. 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 3 4 5 6 2 3 4 5 6 2 3 4 S 6 2 3 4 5 6 2 3 4 5 6 2 3 4 S 6 128 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 -12- In thinking about your experience as a college student and a family person (with partner, children if any) please indicate how much you would agree with the 1: h.) II 105. 106. 107. 108. 1090 110. 1110 112. 113. 114. following: Strongly disagree 4 Disagree Somewhat disagree 6 Strongly Disagree I felt my family (partner, children) developed positive attitudes about my being in school. 1 My family were very willing to help me meet my school responsibilities. 1 I felt that there was adequate time to do everything I was supposed to do in each of my roles. l I experienced good health. 1 My family were encour- aging and supportive of my going to school. 1 We had few financial problems in paying for my education. 1 Time pressures were the most frequent source of problems for me. 1 We could afford help at home to lessen my responsibilities there. 1 I could afford typing copying services, tutorial help, etc. to make my school work load easier. 1 I became more aware of my success in meeting my own goals. 1 129 Somewhat agree Agree Strongly agree Strongly Agree 1 T 1 T S7 58 59 6O 61 62 63 64 65 66 .67 -13- In thinking about your experience as a college student and a family person (with partner, children if any) please indicate how much you would agree with the following: Strongly Disagree 115. There was adequate space at home for me to find a quiet area to study. 1 116. Others in the family took over some of my home responsibilities to help me out. 1 117.I derived primary satis- faction from my own accomplishments rather than from the accom- plishments of others who were close to me. 1 118. I was always tired. I 119. I planned my time care— fully so that I could get everything done. 1 120. I found I had more con- flicts with my husband when I was enrolled in school. 1 121. I established priorities among all my responsi- bilities. 1 122. I lowered my standards of performance for my- self in my home responsibilities. 1 123. I delegated some of my non-school responsibilities to others to save my time. 1 124. I had to give up other activities that I enjoyed. l 125. I became more self-con- fident as a result of my schooling. 1 130 Strongly Agree 68 69 7O 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 (with partner, children if any) -14- please indicate how much you would agree In thinking about your experience as a college student and a family personi with the following: 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. 136. 137. l was in college to please other people, not myself. I established a routine in my activities to help every- thing run smoothly. I felt under pressure in my other roles. I felt very adequate in my school performance. I gained knowledge which enabled me to handle my other responsibilities. My family didn't expect as much help from me when I was in school. I wish I had graduated before taking on other responsibilities. I adopted some new attitudes about women's roles which were not compatible with my partner's views. I felt my studies were closely related to my other interests and responsibilities. I sometimes lowered my standards of performance Strongly Disagree for myself at school in order to get everything done. I often could not ade- quately meet my other responsibilities. Generally, I felt good about the way everything was going. 131 Strongly Agree l 1 -15- (with partner, children if any) please indicate how much you would agree In thinking about your experience as a college student and a family person] with the following: 80 138. Card 3 7 139. 8 140. 9 141. Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree I felt no guilt about pursuing my education and interests. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The amount of work I had to do interfered with how well it got done. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Was the specific curriculum what you had hoped for in your major? (circle one) No.... ................ 1 Yes ..................... 2 Comments: How would you characterize your attendance pattern for the degree you were seeking? (circle one) Too draw out (It took forever!)000000000000000000...0.00000000000000001 Intermittent (I came as often as I could manage it.)....... ........ ...2 Consistent (I enrolled and came regularly, but couldn't take a fu111°ad-).. 00000000 0 0000000000000 0 00000000 0.00 00000 000003 FUll-time SCUdentoooooooooeoso ooooooo so oooooooooooooooo o ooooooooooo 00004 Comments: 132 10 11 142. 1430 -l6- Did you return to school after a period of non-attendance (in which you worked after high school, or stopped college to return later)? No.0...00 000000 000000.000.01 Do you feel that the F.A.C. department or the University, should have assisted you in some ways to facilitate your’meeting degree requirements? (Counseling services, different library terms, loans, timing of classes, etc.) Please elaborate. 133 APPENDIX D DESCRIPTION OF SUBJECTS 134 TABLE 21.--Description of Subjects. Characteristic Number Race White 110 Black 21 Other __j; TOTAL 133 Degree Status Bachelor's Program Inactive 25 Active 5 Graduate 38 Master's Program Inactive 20 Active 11 Graduate ._§£ TOTAL 133 Employment Status in School Not at all 34 Vacations or Part-time Occasionally 21 Part-time Regularly 55 Full time _j§; TOTAL 132a Marital Status in School Married during last 2 years 113 Separated 11 Living together __j[ TOTAL 133 Years Married 0-4 years 52 5-9 years 26 10-14 years 17 15-24 years 29 25 + years __2. TOTAL 133 aTotal not 133 due to one missing response. 135 136 TABLE 22.--Parenta1 Status During Last Year of School. Status Number No children 48 Had children 85 Mothers Reporting Children in Each Age Group, Infants 9 Preschool 22 Schoolage 47 Teenage 38 Older (19 +) 14 TABLE 23.--Average Age at Completion or at Leaving Program by Degree Status. Degree Status Average Age Graduates Bachelor's 30 Master's 39.5 Actives Bachelor's 27.6 Master's 32 Inactives Bachelor's 29 Master's 39 Overall Average Age 32 BIBLIOGRAPHY 137 BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderson, E. E., & Carter, I. E. Human behavior in the social environment. Chicago: Aldine, 1974. Angrist, S. S. Variations in women's adult aspirations during college. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 1972, 35, 465-468. Astin, H. S. The woman doctorate in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1969. Bailyn, L. Notes on the role of choice in the psychology of pro- ' fessional women. Daedalus, 1964, 2, 700-710. Baruch, R. The achievement motive in women: Implications for career development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1967, 6, 260-267. Bayer, A. E. The college drop-out: Factors affecting college completion. Sociologygof Education, 1968, 4, 305-316. Bebbington, A. C. The function of stress in the establishment of the dual-career family. 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