Women's roles and health: the mediating effect of perceived control.

Abstract

Research concerning women's roles and health has revealed inconsistencies regarding the effects of work/family roles on women's health. Recent work in this area suggests that role characteristics or role quality may be more important in determining health than simple role occupancy. In addition, it has been suggested that role factors may affect health by increasing or decreasing one's perceptions of personal control over life. This study uses logistic regression techniques on data from the 1987 General Social Survey to explore the effects of roles and role quality on women's health, as well as the mediating effects of perceived control in the relationship between role factors and health. It is hypothesized that (1) role quality variables are better predictors of health than role occupancy, (2) the effects on health of roles, and role quality, are mediated by perceived control. In the role occupancy model, findings show that employment is the only role associated with health, and perceived control does modify this relationship slightly. Both high and low quality employment roles predict better health, whereas only high quality marital roles predict better health. While perceived control does mediate slightly the effects of job quality on health, the positive effects of marital status on health are suppressed slightly by perceived control.