Engagement in occupations of everyday life among women of working age. Indicators of health and stress

Abstract

The overall aim of the present thesis was to gain further understanding and knowledge about engagement in occupations of everyday life among women of working age and to identify indicators of health and stress. Included in the studies were women representing two general populations in Sweden, women who were on long-term sick leave and women with stress-related disorders, all aged 30-61 years. Statistical analyses as well as a qualitative analysis were performed. Most of the studied women in the general populations were gainfully employed and most of them were not on sick leave, at least not at the time they were studied. However, not more than about half of them experienced good health and about as many perceived stress. The main results showed that the most appreciated occupational roles among the women were the roles as a worker, a home maintainer, and a family member. When women s engagement in all the occupations of everyday life was studied it seemed as if a combination of a self-image that was characterised by awareness and respect for one s own values, needs, and resources, having strategies to manage and control everyday life, experience of occupational balance and occupations in everyday life as personally meaningful led to balance in everyday life and well-being. The environment also seemed to influence women s experience of balance in everyday life.The occupation-related indicators of health among the women were high well-being concerning work, a balance between engagement in the occupations of everyday life and resources, occupations perceived as personally meaningful, and an experience of occupational balance. A high sense of coherence was also found to be an indicator of health among the women. The main occupation-related indicator of stress among the women was low manageability of occupations of everyday life. Other occupation-related indicators of stress were the experiences of low occupational balance, and low personal meaning in occupations. The result of the present thesis provides occupation-related indicators of health and stress that can be used to develop occupation-based strategies to promote health and prevent sick leave, which these findings really underline the need of.