FAMILY STRESS, HEALTH & JOB PERFORMANCE OF MARRIED WORKING WOMEN

The study was designed to examine family stress, health and job performance of married working women in Dekina Education Zone of Kogi state. The study adopted descriptive survey. The population of the study comprised of 201 married working women. This consists of 201 female secondary school teachers in the 16 public secondary schools in Dekina Education Zone. A structured questionnaire titled “Family Stress, Health and Job Performance of Working Married Woman Questionnaire (FSHJPWMWQ)” was developed by the researcher which guided the study. 70 items were trail-tested on a sample of 20 married working women in Ida Education Zone of Kogi State. The data obtained were computed using Crobach Alpha method. This gave an overall score of 0.92. The five research questions were analyzed using mean and Standard Deviation. An overview of the overall results showed that types of stress that married working women suffer include; financial stress such as shortage of or limited income, emotional stress, home pressure, workplace and health stress. Family stressors are caused by a number of factors such as; working long hours in the office, having a heavy workload at home, taking office work home and others. Equally, consequences of stress on the health of married working women include; emotional distress, socially withdrawn, burnout, depression and others. Consequences of stress on the job performance of married working women include; poor concentration in the office, difficulty in solving office problems, socially withdrawn in the workplace and others. Stress reduction strategies to help women cope with stressful situations includes; setting limits appropriately, working ahead of time to minimize threatening situation, saying no to requests that would create excessive stress and others. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher among others recommends that Government should through ministry of education in synergy with public health workers and counselors, organize training for both the general public and stressors on types of stress; causes, consequences and stress reduction strategies to help stressors cope with stressful situations or conditions. Equally, counselors should be involved and empowered with both physical and psychological strategies such as biofeedback, including thoughts and actions to deal with married working women stressful situations to improve their health condition and enhance their job performance. Based on the findings of the study, limitations of the study were identified and suggestions for further studies were made.

Family system is as old as human life on the earth. Family according to Panasenko (2013) refers to a group of persons, united by ties of marriage, blood, adoption, consisting of single households, interacting and intercommunicating with each other in their respective social roles in creating a common culture. Family is composed of two adults of different sex (husband and wife or father and mother) and one or more children. Jacobs and Gerson (2004) saw family institution as a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children, owned or adopted by the adults. In the context of this study, family comprises of a husband and wife or wives tied together by marriage. They live together either as biological or social aspects for the purpose of raising children, caring or training them to fit into the society and replace them tomorrow.