中年期 旣婚女性의 스트레스와 對處方式 = The Relationship between the Stress and the Coping Methods with Stress in Middle-aged Married Women

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aims at providing basic material for helping in understanding and seeking adaptation methods of the stress in middle-aged married women go through by finding out the extent of their stress and its coping methods. The sample was selected among married women, aged 40 to 59, with their last child older than the elementary school age and living in Seoul and Taegu. The main results are as follows.
1. The level of stress middle-aged married women experienced was distributed on the medium range of stress. And in terms of the point distribution, stress level appeared a little bit higher than on the average point.
2. Socio-economic status and regions had a major influence on the stress. Women with higher socio-economic status went through more stress in husbands and children than did women with lower socio-economic status. Women living in Seoul experienced more stress in husbands and husbands' families than did women in Taegu.
3. Middle-aged married women showed little difference in stress coping methods in the four areas.
4. Social and economic status and education had a major effect on the methods of
coping stress. Women with higher socio-economic status and education practiced the method of problem-focused coping while women with lower socio-economic status and education practiced such passive methods as emotion-relieving methods and wishful thinking methods.
5. In view of the stress extent of middle-aged women, they showed significant
difference only in the problem-focused coping. Compared to women in middle group, women in lower and higher groups practiced problem-focused coping. Besides, the more stress they got from their husbands, the more wishful thinking they tended to practice.