Stability in women's experiences of hassles and uplifts: A five-year follow-up survey

Abstract

Hassles and uplifts, a concept used in measuring daily stress events, was applied to working mothers’ everyday life. The aim was to explore the stability in working mothers’ experiences in patterns of daily occupations, operationalized as hassles and uplifts, between the year 2000 (baseline) and the year 2005 (follow-up). Further, the intention was to reveal possible differences in the number, origins, and ratings of hassles or uplifts between baseline and follow-up. The baseline study comprised 100 women, of whom 77 agreed to participate in the follow-up study. At baseline the questionnaire THU-5 was applied in the form of an interview, and at follow-up it was adapted to a self-response questionnaire sent home to the respondents. Stability was explored qualitatively by investigating the reported causes of hassles and uplifts, and quantitatively by comparing the numbers and ratings of the experiences at baseline and at follow-up. The results indicate a certain amount of stability, although the cause of the experiences changes in line with changes in life stage. It was concluded that the methodology used (THU-5 and THU-3) was sensitive to these changes and could be applied in clinical settings, providing occupational therapists with a tool for detecting daily hassles that could be dealt with. Likewise, detected uplifts can be useful in the process of re-designing patterns of daily occupations affected by stress.