This proposal is for continuation funding of research which will have been under way for two years by the end of its current funding period. The research will by then have obtained interviews with a sample of eighty men, aged 35 to 55, employed as middle managers or in positions of equivalent responsibility as independent entrepreneurs. Three interviews spaced two weeks apart will have mapped each respondent's relational network together with the understandings underlying each important relationship, the events that have taken place within it, and the relationship's provisions and costs. They will also have identified the sources of stress and support in respondents' lives, the intensity of the stresses they have experienced, and the processes through which support has been provided. The study is intended to contribute to our understanding of the ways in which social ties function or fail to function as """"""""support systems,"""""""" and the ways in which social ties may become stressors. Beyond its concerns with social ties, the study has as its goal the identification of the sources of support and stress that together affect men's functioning and morale, whatever these might be. The respondents in the study, men whose work required continuity of high-level performance in responsible positions, are highly vulnerable to work-based stress. They must nevertheless deal with this stress in ways that will protect their continuing effectiveness in their work. In our study we are identifying how they do this. We are concerned with identifying their coping strategies, sources of support they use, and processes by which these sources achieve helpfulness. Men's ability to maintain effective functioning despite stress or adversity is an important aspect of their mental health. This research will help establish the processes maintaining positive mental health in men exposed to high levels of work stress. The present proposal requests funding for: (a) follow-up interviews which would be focused on the ways in which the respondents maintain their morale and their effectiveness despite change and pressures for change, (b) coding of responses to make quantitative statements possible, and (c) qualitative and quantitative analyses of our materials.
| Weiss, R S (1985) Men and the family. Fam Process 24:49-58 |
