Measuring the Psychosocial Quality of Women’s Family Work: Initial Findings

Tamara Colton1 BA (Hons), Laurie Hellsten1 PhD & Bonnie Janzen2 PhD

1Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education2Department of Community Health and Epidemiology

University of SaskatchewanSaskatoon, SK

Outline

Background Research program The present study Method Conclusion

Background

A dominant focus of social epidemiological research on women’s well-being has been on the potential health consequences of combining work and family roles.

Early studies examining the relationship between women’s health and multiple social roles focused on role occupancy.

Inconsistent results have led to the search for different explanations in order to clarify the relationship between women’s roles and health. There is more of a focus on quality of

roles than occupancy Economic and social conditions in which

roles are enacted

Background

There has been a shift in research from the quantity to the quality of social roles occupied which has been most evident in the domain of paid work.

e.g. Robert Karasek’s job strain model

Although the early focus of research was on the relationship between health and work on men however, the qualities and characteristics of paid work which impact women’s health has increased greatly over the last two decades.

Background

In contrast to paid work, relatively little is known about the characteristics and quality of unpaid family work which may influence well-being.

This is an important gap in the research literature, given the thousands of hours that Canadians in general and women in particular will spend in housework and childcare over a life time.

Background

The lack of research attention is likely the result of numerous interacting factors including, view of unpaid family work as “women’s

work” and therefore unimportant. conceptual and measurement difficulties

in attempting to accurately characterize such a complex role.

Background

This lack of research has led to one consequence the absence of family work quality that includes:

1) incorporates important family work constructs identified in the literature as potentially impacting women’s health; and 2) meets the minimum standard psychometric requirements for validity and reliability.

Background

Our Research Program

Objective: to systematically develop (and collect validity evidence for) a multidimensional measure of family work quality for women.

Overall Plan Study 1: Pilot test (using an existing data source) Study 2: Identify additional/revised key domains

of family work quality and develop set of questionnaire items to reflect those domains.

Study 3: Preliminary assessment of how good the domains and items are.

Study 4: Assessment of how good the domains and items are by surveying large numbers of women and using more advanced statistics.

Today’s Presentation

Focus is on the results of the pilot test (study 1).

Method

Based on data that was gathered in a cross-sectional telephone survey of employed parents in Saskatoon during the winter of 2004/2005.

This analysis is based on 674 employed women, with at least one child under 20 years in the household.

As part of this telephone survey, participants were asked questions about the quality of their family work.

The questions on family work were formed from Robert Karasek’s job strain model. They consisted of items from Karasek’s Job Content Questionnaire modified to reflect family work and items used in previous research.

Method

I would like you to now consider the time you spend at home. For each statement that I read please respond with the options strongly disagree, disagree, agree or strongly agree.

Item Source

I spend a lot of time doing repetitive household / childcare-related tasks.

Adapted from Karasek’s Job Content Questionnaire (Karasek et al. 1998)

I have enough time to get everything done. Adapted from Karasek’s Job Content Questionnaire (Karasek et al. 1998)

My household or child-care related activities give me a chance to develop and to learn new things.

Ross & Bird (1994)

My household related activities usually involve doing a number of different kinds of things.

Bird & Ross (1993)

I do creative things around the house. Baruch et al. (1983)

I am expected to do too much. Adapted from Karasek’s Job Content Questionnaire (Karasek et al. 1998)

Method

1   2   3   4

Strongly Disagree  

Disagree 

Agree 

Strongly Agree

Analysis

In addition to basic descriptive statistics, an exploratory factor analysis was performed

Factor analysis is a statistical technique that gathers a group of items into underlying domains

ResultsNumber Percentage

Age

25-29 148 22.0

30-40 274 40.7

41-50 252 37.4

Marital Status

Married/common-law 438 65.0

Separated/divorced/widowed 156 23.1

Single/never married 80 11.9

Educational Attainment

High school or less 220 32.7

Some post-secondary 196 29.1

College Graduate 126 18.7

University Graduate 132 19.6

Results of the factor analysis indicated a 3-factor solution:

Psychological Demands (k=8) Skill Discretion (k=4) Decision Authority (k=4)

Results

Psychological Demands Skill Discretion Decision Authority

I spend a lot of time doing repetitive household/childcare related tasks

My household/child-care related activities give me a chance to develop and learn

new thingsI am expected to do too much

I have enough time to get everything done

My household related activities usually involve doing a number of different kinds

of things

At home, I am free to make my own schedule

The demands my family takes from me often causes conflict I do creative things around the house I have little control over the family budget

My household-related tasks are often interrupted before I can finish them

My role as a parent requires me to be creative

In general, I feel I have control over what happens in most situations at home

I have to work very hard  

My life is hectic  

I spend a lot of time waiting for others  

I have to work very fast in order to get things done  

Results

Reliability

Psychological Demands 0.716 Skill Discretion 0.697 Decision Authority 0.569

For good reliability, the Cronbach’s alpha should be at least 0.7

Conclusion

Clarifying the relationship between psychosocial domestic conditions and women’s health requires reliable and valid measures.

The results of this analysis, though promising, clearly suggest that further instrument development is required. That work is currently underway.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to… The women who have already

participated in the study

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Gender and Health Institute)