The effect of stress on family conflicts
The alarm sounds, you have to go to work and comply with the requirements. The day is over and you should go to a shopping center full of people. When you get home you have to dedicate time to domestic chores. When it seems that it is time to relax with the family, a look at the clock returns to reality: it is time to go to sleep to start the next day an identical day.
These routines can cause a lot of stress in people, a anxiety that ends up affecting family welfare. The balance between work or school demands and roles within the home can cause different conflicts both at home and on a personal level.
Two connected worlds
The labor sphere and the family are connected. What a person experiences at work ends up influence inside your home. Studies such as the one conducted by María Pilar Martínez Díaz, PhD in Psychology, and the psychologist Aguirre Zubiaurre analyze the role played by certain labor variables, such as job satisfaction, flexible hours, the number of hours worked per week, autonomy, absenteeism, performance, intentions to leave the organization and support from supervisors in the family.
A work in which they participated 67 participants (34 men and 33 women) who meet the following requirements: living as a couple, being a father or mother and having a paid job. All of them were submitted to a questionnaire asking about their job satisfaction, organizational commitment (willingness to assume responsibilities), labor involvement (extent in which the circumstances of the work permeate their personal situation), labor flexibility (ability to modify the schedule in case of emergencies) and the type of day.
The resultsOn the one hand, they confirmed that higher levels of work-family conflict are related to lower job satisfaction. There is a significant relationship between these variables, that is, those workers who feel developed at a professional level, show a lower feeling of happiness within the home and the conflict derived from the stress caused by employment is more likely.
At the same time it is also confirmed that higher levels of work-family conflict they are related to a greater number of hours worked per week. A link that is directly related to the previous point. Therefore, it is recommended to look for the balance between both spheres and to bet on relaxation techniques to avoid stress affecting the home.
Fight against stress
The stress generated by work must not only be fought by seeking a balance between employment and home. We must also take into account other routines in the day to day of people:
- Nothing to stay at home. Although the fatigue derived from the week of work invite a weekend at home, we must try hard and leave. Breathe air and do activities outside of the four walls.
- To rest well. You have to take care to sleep the hours recommended by specialists. A bad rest results in high levels of stress.
- Distribute the tasks. Everyone should contribute to the running of the home and avoid that a single person be responsible for all household chores.
- Monitor feeding. We are what we eat and nutrition plays an important role when it comes to talking about stress.
- Dedicate time to the family. New technologies have made many people connected to their jobs 24 hours a day. Once you get home, you have to disconnect, spend time with the family and relax with them.
Damián Montero
