Coping with workplace stress: A multiple-group comparison of female managers and clerical workers.

Abstract

This study cross-validated and refined a causal model of workplace stress (B. C. Long, S. E. Kahn, & R. W. Scnutz, 1992). Multivariate analysis of variance and multiple-group structural equation modeling were used to contrast female clerical workers (n = 214) with the original sample of managerial women (n = 249). Consistent with the effects of social roles, clerical workers had fewer coping resources, appraised the stress event as less controllable, experienced more work demands and less support, used relatively less engagement coping, and were more distressed and less satisfied than managers. Moreover, the personality disposition of agentic traits had a stronger influence on coping strategies for clerical workers than for managers. Although recent research has aimed at the development of integrative models of the stress and coping process of employed women (B. C. Long, Kahn, & Schutz, 1992; Portello, 1996; Terry, Tonge, & Callan, 1995), little attention has been paid to the impact of institutional ized social roles on women's experience of work stress. Pearlin (1989) posited that greater vulnerability to stress may be attributable to social roles that reflect the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and self-regard (p. 245). Ironically, women in management and professional occupations have been the focus of considerable research that has examined the impact of work-related stress on adjustment