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| Housewife in traditional role cooking |
Carol Forsloff--Women often have to play a variety of roles. They manage the home, care for the children, help plan the family budget, run errands and often work full time. They are mother, caregiver, club member, community neighbor and worker in some capacity, often outside the home. That's why there is considerable stress in the lives of working mothers, as research indicates, that comes with changing roles.
A study at Cornell University shows that moving from one role to another in between various social settings that include from home to office, from parent to employee, can be stressful, especially when these changes are made on a daily basis.
Benjamin Cornwell observes in his published paper that “A key paradox of social life is that a rich and supportive social network creates a complex of micro social problems associated with sequencing social interactions, synchronizing schedules and transitioning between contexts. Maybe the secret to understanding health issues like stress is to look at those social connections more microscopically,” he suggests. “It’s not just about how many social ties, or how different they are. It’s about how they are sequenced. This is a new idea in sociological research.”
Much about what folks consider stressful, however, is a matter of perception. In other words, how we perceive our roles, from mother to pharmacist or our situation, from home to school, for example, has much to do with whether or not we actually experience stress. A fireman whose daily life is filled with events that some might consider particularly stressful---like running into a burning building---may consider his role and his situation to be filled with adventure and fulfillment. On the other hand, a teacher with a classroom of young children may view her job as very stressful. The fireman, because he does not perceive his situation as stressful, will not likely experience the adverse effects ordinarily associated with stress, whereas the school teacher may end up with anxiety, depression and a host of other health problems because of what is considered to be a job filled with pressures that often seem beyond her ability to cope.
Stress is, therefore, not just the role we play or the situation in which we function, but our perception of those roles and situations. Still, as the present research maintains, the average person finds the shift from one context to another can be taxing.
One of the particular problems related to continuous stress, which may come with context switching as shown by the Cornell research, is the fact that the human brain finds it difficult to absorb new learning when a person is under stress. Since most of us wear a number of hats, and must switch from task to task, from one context to another, a number of times during the day, if we are faced with having to learn new ideas or methods, we have particular difficulty. Stress becomes a heavy burden on the worker in that situation, as it creates a revolving door of trouble. We have stress and have trouble learning, and because we have trouble learning, we make more errors and with the errors comes additional stress.
Stress can also impair physical function and health. And the more impaired one's health becomes, the more difficult it is to function in various roles and contexts. This also increases stress.
The key to solving the problems of stress is knowing what triggers it for the individual and to find ways of reducing it. If changing context repeatedly during the day is particularly stressful, then an individual must examine which of the contexts and/or tasks can be changed in order to reduce the impact of switching from one situation to another, in response to the study presented in this article.
For the person who is under stress from context switching, professionals maintain there are cogent ways to reduce stress. One is to find personal, quiet time during the day simply to relax, meditate, exercise and put one's mind on those subjects and ideas that are pleasurable as opposed to taxing, so stress can be relieved. Many people find, for example, that taking that personal time just before switching from one role to another can make a difference in reducing stress. Mother might find it easier on her multiple responsibilities by spending 15 minutes upon getting home with a cup of tea and some time in a room where she can be alone and simply dust off the work day before proceeding to the kitchen to become the cook, housekeeper and caregiver of children. Those few minutes could make a significant difference in an otherwise difficult day. This is, of course, just one example of how the simple act of finding a diversion can reduce stress, especially the kind that requires someone to switch from one role to another in a hurry.
Professionals say that in order to function well, one should reduce stress; but most of us have multiple responsibilities so that it is difficult to avoid the problems that come from those varying circumstances. Looking for ways to alleviate the result of context switching, or stress, is the way to overcome the problems related to those many roles we all must play from day to day. But to do this we should have a plan.
That plan has four major areas of focus, experts say. They include:
1. Tackling the problem
2. Taking care of the body
3. Dealing with emotions
4. Making the world better
What do all these steps mean? The first step addresses the fact that one must assess and recognize the problem and decide the best way to resolve it. Does this mean, for example, taking that time out in midday or just after leaving work? Stress reduction from context switching in daily life can be gained from recognizing a problem may exist and making a decision to do something about it. One must then focus on the physical needs, the need for rest, to slow down, and to exercise regularly. Emotions must be dealt with as well. Stress can be relieved by discussing issues with a counselor or close friend. Finally we can make the world better for ourselves by focusing on the needs of others, although not to the exclusion of our own. Redefining our roles can be the bridge to understanding the nature of the roles we play and the value of them. Often when we value what we do in each situation, and take time to measure that for ourselves, we unconsciously reduce stress because what we value most and take the most pleasure thinking about or doing will by its very nature reduce our stress.
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