Phillip Slee
Roz Murray-Harvey
1997
It is now understood that while caregiving may be a source of much satisfaction to many parents, it can nonetheless be associated with considerable stress. However, we have little idea of the frequency of occurrence of different types of stress in parents' and children's lives.
This paper has three major aims:
The 318 families were randomly selected from students' names in the 27 participating schools. Interviews with families yielded demographic information along with details regarding stressful life events and psychological well-being for both adults and children. Children above year two were interviewed regarding stressful life events, attitude to school and coping with stress.
Has your family experienced more or less stress than other families?
Stress Rating % Response|
Less Stress 23.3% |
Same Amount of Stress 49.8% |
More Stress 26.8% |
When parents were asked to rate whether their families had experienced more or less stress than other families over a quarter of the sample (26.8%) believed their family had experienced more stress than other families. So, what kinds of stressors affect Australian families?
Three sets of data are summarised in the following table:
Frequency and Intensity of Stressful Life Reported by Parents for Themselves and Their ChildNote: The number of reported SLEs ranged between 0 and 19 (X= 6.00).
Survey Items
Frequency % Stressful/Very Stressful Rating
Adult Child 1. Discipline problems with child
27.1* 97.7 89.6 2. Death in the family
40.6* 97.6 67.4 3. Greater financial problems
36.9* 97.4 57.2 4. Home being broken into
15.1 95.8 59.2 5. Serious illness in family
29.2* 95.6 83.7 6. Parents separated/divorced
20.8 93.7 87.3 7. Less marital harmony
22.5 93.0 83.6 8. Parent had an accident/hospital
13.9 92.9 77.2 9. Conflict in home increased
37.9* 92.6 91.7 10. Family member robbed/attacked
6.6 90.0 66.7 11. The child (in survey) is hospitalised
23.3 89.8 79.8 12. A child in the family is hospitalised
37.7* 87.3 62.2 13. Adult in the family unemployed
31.5* 84.9 38.1 14. Parents divorced
10.8 84.8 75.2 15. Family moved home
40.6* 82.3 57.0 16. Family had psychological counselling
12.9 77.5 48.7 17. Family on social welfare
27.0* 75.8 23.9 18. Child had psychological counselling
13.9 75.5 52.1 19. Others moved into home
17.7 71.5 41.0 20. Adults change jobs
48.9* 70.9 36.0 21. Child born into family
57.9* 68.5 49.4 22. Parent away from home
26.2* 67.9 73.2 23. Adults changed work responsibilities
2.2 62.5 66.6
It can be seen that, of the events most frequently reported, "Another child being born into the family" was experienced by 58 per cent of the families. Other frequently cited SLEs (indicated by the asterisk) were: changing jobs, death in the family, moving house, and increase in family conflict.
When we examined the parents' ratings for the intensity or impact of the SLE a different picture emerged to that which considered frequencies alone. Parents rated the most stressful life event for adults as 'constant discipline problems with the children'. The most stressful life events for adults related to themes of death/illness, violence within and from outside the home and marital/relationship issues.
Parents rated conflict in the home as having the greatest impact on children. They considered the most SLEs for children related to themes of conflict in parent-child relationships, illness and marital issues amongst the adults.
The present findings highlight that the frequency of a stressful event should not be confused with intensity. That is, the most frequently occurring events were not always rated by parents as the most stressful either for children or themselves.
Frequency of Stressful Life Events for Primary and Secondary Students
The following table identifies the frequency with which the 167 primary and secondary school students in the sample identified Stressful Life Events as having occurred in their lives.
Note: * These items only answered by secondary school students
Life Event Percent Affected 1. Pet died
76.2 2. Bad mark on test
68.0 3. *Things I don't like about the way I look
65.2 4. Not allowed to watch favourite TV show
59.2 5. Relative died (not parent)
58.9 6. Change to a new school
57.7 7. Problems with school work
56.8 8. New baby born into family
48.2 9. Family moved
45.6 10. Was bullied
41.3 11. *Quarrel a lot with parents
37.0 12. In trouble at school
36.9 13. Best friend moved away
36.3 14. Parents quarrel a lot
34.7 15. Very sick and went to hospital
29.8 16. *Social life controlled by parents
28.9 17. *Hard to meet opposite sex
27.8 18. *Parents often disappointed in what I do
26.1 19. Parents separated
24.4 20. Parents divorced
24.0 21. Parent lost job
23.4 22. Relative/friend moved into family home
18.0 23. One of parents remarried
13.8 24. *Problems getting along with other kids
13.3 25. Parent had a serious accident
11.4 26. Caught bullying
11.3 27. Older brother/sister left home
10.8 28. Parent away from home a lot with work
10.8 29. Caught stealing
7.8 30. *Had a few scrapes with the law
6.7 31. Suspended from school
3.6 32. Parent died
1.2
For children, the most frequently occurring SLE was having a pet die. Other frequently cited events included issues to do with school, personal appearance and restriction on television watching.
We then considered their ratings of the intensity of the events.
Mean Rankings of the Intensity of Stressful Life Events for Primary and
Secondary School Students
Primary School Students Mean 1. Parent had a serious accident
2.62
2. Parents divorced
2.55 3. Parent died
2.50 4. Parents separated
2.33 5. Was bullied
2.28 6. Caught bullying
2.17 7. Caught stealing
2.13 8. Parents quarrel a lot
2.11 9. Pet died
2.06 10. Relative died (not parent)
2.04 11. Best friend moved away
1.93 12. Very sick and went to hospital
1.91 13. Change to a new school
1.88 14. In trouble at school
1.71 15. Parent lost job
1.71 16. Family moved
1.68 17. Problems with school work
1.66 18. Suspended from school
1.50 19. Relative/friend moved into family home
1.49 20. Not allowed to watch favourite TV show
1.34 21. Bad mark on test
1.32 22. One of parents remarried
1.31 23. Parent away from home a lot with work
1.25 24. New baby born into family
1.19 25. Older brother/sister left home
#
Note: # no occurrence
Secondary School Students Mean 1. Was bullied
2.70
2. Parent died
2.50 3. Parent had a serious accident
2.38 4. Parents separated
2.36 5. Very sick and went to hospital
2.33 6. Problems with school work
2.30 7. Relative died (not parent)
2.29 8. Parents quarrel a lot
2.71 9. Caught stealing
2.25 10. Parents divorced
2.16 11. Parent lost job
2.08 12. Pet died
2.06 13. Caught bullying
2.00 14. Change to a new school
1.98 15. In trouble at school
1.96 16. Parent away from home a lot with work
1.92 17. Best friend moved away
1.88 18. One of parents remarried
1.85 19. Bad mark on test
1.84 20. Family moved
1.81 21. Older brother/sister left home
1.54 22. Not allowed to watch favourite TV show
1.43 23. Relative/friend moved into family home
1.38 24. Suspended from school
1.38 25. New baby born into family
1.29
SLE mean = 9.13 (STD = 4.14, range 0-22)
From this table it can be seen that primary and secondary students report stressful life events differently in terms of intensity. Clearly, secondary students indicated a greater range of SLEs as stressful than the primary school group.
Six variables emerged from the study as predictors of family stress.
A full version of this paper can be obtained from the authors:
Slee, P. T. & Murray-Harvey, R. (1997). Stressed Out and Coping in
Families. Paper presented at the 10th Australasian Human Development
Conference. Adelaide 10-12 July.
Three funding bodies have supported our research: The Australian Research Council, The Early Childhood Association, and The Australian Rotary.