Paid work, unpaid work and social support: A study of the health of male and female nurses

Social Science and Medicine

Volumn 43, Issue 11, 1996, Pages 1627-1636

  Walters, Vivienne ^a   Lenton, Rhonda ^a   French, Susan ^a   Eyles, John ^a   Mayr, Janet ^a   Newbold, Bruce ^b  

^a MCMASTER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN   (United States)

Author keywords

Gender; Health problems; Nursing; Social support; Unpaid work

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; CANADA; CAREGIVER; FAMILY SIZE; FEMALE; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HEALTH STATUS; HOUSEHOLD; HUMAN; HUMAN RELATION; INCOME; JOB SATISFACTION; LIFE; MALE; MULTIPLE REGRESSION; NORMAL HUMAN; NURSE; NURSING; OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE; SOCIAL SUPPORT; WORKLOAD;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; BURNOUT, PROFESSIONAL; EMPLOYMENT; FEMALE; GENDER IDENTITY; HEALTH STATUS; HUMANS; JOB SATISFACTION; MALE; MIDDLE AGED; NURSES; ONTARIO; QUESTIONNAIRES; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; SEX FACTORS; SOCIAL SUPPORT; WORK; WORKLOAD;

EID: 0030561248     PISSN: 02779536     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00067-6     Document Type: Article

References (46)

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34. 34. This is a good response rate for such a mail survey. However, it does limit our ability to generalize from our data. This is especially so in the case of male nurses. The response rate for women was 47% while for men it was 35%. For a discussion of response rates for mail surveys see: Dillman D. A. Mail and Telephone Surveys. Wiley, New York, 1978 and Scott C. Research on mail surveys. JI R. statist. Soc. Ser. A 24, 143, 1961.
35. 34. This is a good response rate for such a mail survey. However, it does limit our ability to generalize from our data. This is especially so in the case of male nurses. The response rate for women was 47% while for men it was 35%. For a discussion of response rates for mail surveys see: Dillman D. A. Mail and Telephone Surveys. Wiley, New York, 1978 and Scott C. Research on mail surveys. JI R. statist. Soc. Ser. A 24, 143, 1961.
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37. 36. We added the new items to the indices constructed by Barnett et al. [26] and then ran confirmatory factor analyses to assess whether our conceptual rationale for their placement was borne out. The results supported our models. α coefficients of reliability were then run to assess the internal reliability of the subscales.
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39. 38. Dummy variables were used as number of children has a curvilinear relationship with the health variable which is not easily corrected with standard transformations.
40. 39. All 5 items loaded high on a single factor (α = 0.81). In order not to lose the 356 respondents with no partner, we created three dummy variables on the basis of our index using "no partner" as the baseline category. Respondents with a score of 15 or less on the quality of relationship index were given a score of 1 for the dummy variable, "poor relationship", a medium relationship included respondents with scores between 16 and 19, and a good relationship included scores between 16 and 20.
41. 40. Walters V., Beardwood B., Eyles J. and French S. Paid and unpaid work roles of male and female nurses. In Invisible: Issues in Women's Occupational Health (Edited by Messing K., Neis B. and Dumais L.). Gynergy Press, Charlottetown, 1995.
42. 41. In addition, we have not fully explored some of the interactions that may be present.
43. 42. In this sample female RNs reported a mean of 24.13 hours a week spent on homemaking while for the men the mean was 16.40 hours (P = 0.00). The female RNs were also more likely to be responsible for a dependent adult (P = 0.04).
44. 43. The lack of significance in the case of 1-2 children for male RNs is probably due to the smaller sample size for men. The unstandardized regression coefficient for 3-4 children is larger than it is for 1-2 children in all 3 analyses (for the full sample and the male and female RNs).
45. 44. See Ref. 40. Also, Williams has noted that men in nursing are more likely to feel subject to discrimination. Williams C. L. Gender Differences at Work: Women and Men in Nontraditional Occupations. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1989.
46. 45. The gender differences were much more marked in the case of negative well-being: while this was associated with both nursing and family variables for female RNs, it was associated with family variables alone for the male RNs. See Walters et al., The effects of paid and unpaid work on nurses' well-being: the importance of gender. Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the Canadian Social, and Anthropol. Assoc., 1995.