Stress

Much social stress research has focused on differences in exposure and response to social stressors within a single nation, typically the United States. We can gain additional insights if we broaden our perspective to consider differences between nations around the globe. One example is the link between single mothering and low income just noted. In the United States, children living with never-married and formerly married parents, particularly mothers, are disproportionately likely to have low incomes. But in a comparative perspective, it becomes clear that this is not an inevitable consequence of single-mothering: the proportion in poverty varies dramatically across the developed countries, with U.S. rates much higher than in such countries as France or the Netherlands (see Lichter 1997). Lynne Casper and colleagues' (1994) examination of poverty among men and women across Western industrialized countries suggests that much of the explanation lies in differing national policies regarding income transfers and income floors for all citizens, as well as differing supports for employment. Thus, how employment affects families, and how family composition affects family income, varies across nations.

An international perspective also suggests other demographic factors that figure importantly into the kinds of social stressors that families encounter. For example, both within the United States and across the globe, race and ethnic groups vary in their social advantage/disadvantage, exposure to social stressors, and access to resources. These studies suggest that when economic problems become pervasive in a community, overall community levels of family violence and child abuse rise. To the extent that discriminatory labor-market practices compromise minority members' access to income, job security, and occupational quality, racially segregated communities will lack the resources families need to resist stress, and the families living with them may be exposed to greater social stressors as well (see, for example, McLloyd 1990).

As nations and regions become increasingly interconnected, migration across communities, states, and national borders presents an increasingly common social stressor for individuals and families. Min Zhou (1997) summarizes the family and intergenerational stressors that immigrants to the United States face, as family ties are stretched across national borders, and suggests that the success of various family adaptations strategies varies depending on the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of the communities into which they move. Samuel Noh and William Avison (1996) study the experiences of Korean immigrants to Canada, and link increases in depression over time to more undesirable life events, more chronic stressors, and less mastery and sense of support.

Migration may be permanent or temporary, and may involve whole families or individual members. The consequences of migration are likely to vary depending on the circumstances one is leaving behind, the extent of family resources that can be retained, and the conditions faced in one's new environment. Much migration is intentional, as individuals and families seek to improve their circumstances. But war, ethnic violence, crop failures and economic conditions also combine to create huge flows of political and economic refugees; these streams are apt to have fewer resources and greater difficulties.

Changing mortality patterns across populations and across the world also suggest new sources of social stress for families, particularly in the direction and duration of caregiving across generations. In the developed world, increasing life spans may present increased demands for caregiving by adult family members to their elders. In sharp contrast, in many areas of Africa and Asia, increases in sexually transmitted diseases, particularly AIDS-related diseases, have resulted in declining average life expectancies and the deaths of parents in early adulthood. These new mortality patterns create a generation of orphans and present increased demands for caregiving by elder family members and others.

Finally, studies of stress in families, and gender differences in average levels of well-being, call attention to differences in stress processes within families. Societies differ significantly in the extent to which male dominance and female subordination are accepted as part of the normative order. To the extent that male and female family members have strikingly different rights, freedoms, and responsibilities, it is reasonable to expect that they will be exposed to differing stressors, have differing access to social resources, and be differently affected by stressors. Thus, the study of stress in families, both within and across nations, must encompass both individual and family stressors and individual and family outcomes, without assuming that stressors affect male and female family members, or members of different societies, equally.