| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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According to the socialization hypothesis, men are socialized to use instrumental coping strategies to deal with stress, whereas women are socialized to use emotion-focused coping strategies. In other words, men are more likely to handle a problem by planning and executing individual strategies of action, whereas women are more likely to seek the guidance and support of others to help solve a problem (Levy-Shiff, 1999). The effects, or rather the symptoms, of stress have been found to result in lower reported psychological well-being in women and greater physical illness in men (Jick & Mitz, 1985). This indicates that social support may be more important to the well-being experienced by mothers as compared to fathers.
The structure of an individual’s social support network is usually determined by the number of social ties, types of relationships, and amount and quality of time shared (Thoits, 1995). Members of an individual’s social support network can offer instrumental, informational, and/or emotional aid (House & Kahn, 1985) which is generally thought to reduce or safeguard the impact of stressful incidents and ongoing strains (Cohen & Wills, 1985). Spousal support is considered to be the greatest coping resource available to a parent (Nath, Borkowski, Whitman, & Schellenbach, 1991). However, other members of a social support network can also play a significant role in mediating the effects of persistent stresses and daily hassles commonly faced by mothers (Cooke, Rossman, McCubin, & Patterson, 1988).
For parents, supportive aid may vary from problem-solving assistance and sympathetic ears to household tasks and babysitting services (Marcenko & Meyers, 1991). The capacity to cope with everyday family demands and child-care responsibilities is highly related to sources and functions of a parent’s social support network (Nath et al., 1991).