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Stress, social support, and health among manufacturing women workers

Gwang Suk Kim, Post-doctoral fellow, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing, 845 South Damen Ave. Room #1030, Chicago, IL 60612-7350, 312-413-8994, gskim89@uic.edu and Mi-Kyong Shin, Doctoral student, School of Public Health, 1603 W. Taylor St., Chicago, IL 60612-4394.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship of stress and social support to self-rated health status in married working women. Data were collected from 331 married women working in 14 the manufacturing industries in Korea. The self-administered questionnaire included general characteristics, social support, work stress, family stress, and perceived health status according to the Short Form 36 (SF-36). Perceived health status was significantly different according to history of smoking, type of behaviors, discomfort related to menstruation, existence of young children, amount of rest time in the home, and job stability. There was a significant positive relationship for social support with perceived health status, and a significant negative relationship for work stress and family stress with perceived health status. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis predicted health when meaningful variables were grouped into four categories, personal, work-related, family-related factors, and social support. When family-related factors were added to the model, the power of explanation was increased significantly, contributing an additional 17.9% to the explained variance. Social support was not found to mediate the relationship between stress and health status. The findings suggest that work stress, family stress, and social support should be considered comprehensively in the stress management and health promotion for married working women. Interventions must not only address each person's unique needs, but should also be accompanied by organizational management strategies and policies.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

Keywords: Women's Health, Stress

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Unique Cohorts: Worker Health & Safety Poster Session

The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA