Stress and Coping at the Boundary of Work and Family

Abstract

In this volume we bring together a series of chapters that focus on the nature and management of stress that crosses work and family roles. For some time, researchers and practicioners have recognized the fluid boundaries between work and family life, an idea more recently expressed in the concept of spillover. This concept has been most frequently used to characterize the domestic strains of workers in high stress occupations (e.g., police work) that result from an inability to dissipate the tensions that accumulate over the workday. Alternatively, stress may flow from the family to the work setting, as in the inability of working mothers to keep family responsibilities from impinging upon their workday. A critical and less often researched problem of role boundaries concerns the spread of stress across several members of the family, an observation often made in clinical studies, but less compatible with most large-scale and individualistic research strategies. The spillover concept therefore includes stress and coping processes flowing across individuals as well as social roles. The chapters in this volume reflect this dual concern.