Aging and Overall Life Stress in Working Women

Introduction:
Work gives a sense of identification to an individual within the community. Creates sense of
worth and emotional well being. Ali (2008) discussed that jobs and business are an important
part of an individual's life. work provides a source of income, it helps to fulfill aims, serve
community and builds social network. Jobs and business are major source of stress.
Recently opportunities for women have increased all over the globe. consequently women
employees face difficulties in work related issues. According to the national survey in United
States, 600% of the working women confirmed that job stress was their number one problem
(Rich & Nussbaum, 1994).
Statement of the Problem:
The purpose of this study was to determine if overall life stress increase or decreases as working
women grow older.
Statement of the Hypothesis:
H10: Overall life stress is not significantly different as working women grow older.
H1A: Overall life stress is significantly different as working women grow older
Methodology:
I collected scores on the ILS (Index of Life Stress) from a sample of 100 working women at age
40 and from the same women at age 60. Forty five participants completed both surveys. I then
combined the scores from both interpersonal life stress and occupational life stress for a total
overall life stress score. The sample was selected through random sampling technique from
various work settings. All the respondents were highly educated belonging to different
professions such as Bankers, Lawyers, Administrators, Teachers, Physicians etc. The ILS (Index
of Life Stress) scale was used in this study to find out levels of stress among working women.
Analysis of Data:
Descriptive statistics: The results indicated that participants mean score for interpersonal life
stress decreased from 78.20 to 75.00 over the 20-year period of the study, and occupational life
stress decreased from 73.64 to 61.87 over the life of the study (see Table 1). Overall life stress
decreased from a mean of 151.84 (SD = 14.48) at age 40 to a mean of 136.87 (SD = 9.95) at age
60 (see Table 1). In addition to overall stress reducing, the standard deviation, or spread of the
level of stress over all participants, also decreased. Figure 1 illustrates the difference scores for
overall life stress, indicating some participants decreased life stress, some had little or no change,
and some increased overall life stress in 20 years.
Table 1

Descriptive Statistics: Stress at age 40 and 60

M SD SE Mean
Interpersonal life stress at age 40 78.20 11.66 1.74
Occupational life stress at age 40 73.64 9.55 1.42
Interpersonal life stress at age 60 75.00 7.71 1.15
Occupational life stress at age 60 61.87 6.63 0.99
Overall life stress at age 40 151.84 14.48 2.16
Overall life stress at age 60 136.87 9.95 1.48


Figure 1. Histogram of difference scores (overall score at age 40 minus overall score at age 60).
Inferential statistics
I used a paired samples t test to determine if overall life stress is significantly different as
working women grow older. The results indicated that there is no significant relationship
between overall life stress at age 40 and overall life stress at age 60, r = .04, p = .81.The results
further indicated that the null hypothesis that life stress is not significantly different as working
women grow older was rejected, t(44) = 5.82, p < .001 (see Table 2).

Table 2
Paired Samples t Test: Stress at Age 40 and Stress at Age 60

95% CI of the
Difference
M SD
SE
Mean
Lower Upper t df P
14.98 17.27 2.57 9.79 20.17 5.82 44 < 0.001

Conclusion and Implications:
The results indicated that there is no significant relationship between interpersonal life stress at
age 40 and occupational life stress at age. This lack of a relationship indicates that a womans
overall life stress at age 60 cannot be predicted from a measure of their overall life stress at age
40. The results further indicated that the null hypothesis that life stress is not significantly
different as working women grow older was rejected. The significant difference between the
mean score of overall life stress at age 40 and the mean score of overall life stress at age 60
indicates that women tend to be significantly less stressed at age 60. Employers may consider
stress reduction techniques for female employees who may be suffering from stress that affects
their job performance. Further research is needed to determine why women suffer more from
interpersonal and occupational life stress at age 40 than at age 60.

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