The Best-Stressed List

Pity the professional working mom. She not only hits her head
against the glass ceiling at work, she hits the roof at home, where she
and hubby are having a hell of a time juggling work and family roles. So
she works a "second shift," trudging home every evening to keep kids and
house in line.

The working mother, it turns out, is truly short of time and
energy. And her job frustrations are real. But she's rolling in
satisfaction. As many studies now demonstrate, the more roles women
occupy, the more satisfied they are with life and the lower their rates
of distress.

If multiple roles bring lower distress, what of professional women
who are single? That's the question Memphis State University's Margaret
Fong, Ph.D., asks with a certain amount of urgency.

"Nearly half of all professional women are single," Fong told the
American Psychological Association convention in Washington, D.C. Single
professional women are heavily represented in social work, academia, and
business. Yet studies on the interplay of work and stress have almost
totally overlooked them.

Reviewing the handful of studies that mention marital or parental
status, Fond found "indicators of more distress in single women, such as
level of illness, stress symptoms, psychological distress, and
depression." While they seemed to experience the same stressors as other
women, "for some reason the life outcome is more negative for single
women."

Perhaps, she reasons, there's some unique reactivity or
vulnerability related to single status, such as the lack of a supportive
partner, or the stress of being defined by what one is not (nonmarried,
childless). Or maybe, as one study suggests, it's the other way around,
that those who take on fewer roles do so because of lower emotional or
physical energy. Yet another possibility is that singles are more
involved with their careers, and thus more reactive to work
stressors.

Fong isn't sure. All she says for now is that single professional
women are "a high-risk group." And more research is definitely
needed.