This study measured marital satisfaction of low-income couples in a Western state following participation in the Building Healthy Marriages program, which aimed to educate couples and increase relationship satisfaction. The researchers' goals were the following: To determine the areas in which participants experienced the greatest number of…

This paper addresses issues in the separation of level of functioning of a child with mental retardation and the general life satisfaction of parents in research on the effects of such children on their parents' level of psychological stress. It also urges development of instruments that do not mix items measuring physical demands and those…

Analysis of questionnaires completed by 257 parents of children with multiple disabilities (of which 25 had previously substantiated maltreatment reports) on perceptions of stress and burden of care found no relationship between a history of child maltreatment and currently perceived stress levels. (DB)

A review of studies that used the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress with families rearing children with developmental disabilities identified three primary difficulties: (1) definitional problems: (2) multiple measures of the same construct that do not converge: and (3) failure to replicate. Solution strategies include separating demands,…

Using an individual differences multidimensional scaling method with a sample of (N=38) parents, four dimensions of stress were identified. The first dimension, major versus minor child problems, was most problematic for parents and highly related to a set of adjectives describing unpleasant or stressful emotional states. (Author)

Second in a two-part report on a 1982 study by the staff of the Education and Work program at Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), this issue presents the complete findings from case studies of 44 unemployed men and women. In order to determine how unemployment affects people, NWREL's study identified and explored the following four…

The construct validity of the adapted version of the "Questionnaire on Resources and Stress-Short Form" was examined with 103 mothers of children with mild to severe developmental disabilities, aged 0-38. Results revealed that the questionnaire appears to be a valid, efficient, and effective measure of stress. (Author/JDD)

Seventy-six parents of handicapped children were surveyed to compare the frequency of divorce in the sample population to that of the U.S. population. A research review revealed that the first-born child causes extensive to severe crises in the parents' marital relationship; that the presence of a child with a handicapping condition causes a…

First of a two-part report on a 1982 study by the staff of the Education and Work program at Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), this issue presents the preliminary findings from questionnaires (and telephone surveys) of 30 unemployed men and women. In order to determine how unemployment affects people, NWREL's study identified and…

The Parenting Stress Index (PSI) is a clinical and research self-report instrument (101 items) designed as a screening and diagnostic assessment technique to identify parent and child systems which are under stress, and in which deviant development of the child is likely to take place, or where dysfunctional parenting is likely to occur. The PSI…

Two surveys were conducted to further increase understanding of two-career families and the corporations that employ them. First, questionnaires sent to Fortune 1300 corporations probed for awareness on the part of corporations of the problems of two-career couples and attempted to elicit evidence of new policy planning. A total of 374 companies…

A study examined career transitions within organizations. Developed and evaluated during the study was a model that views career transitions as a stress-coping process influenced by work and non-work factors. Data from organizational records, a questionnaire, and performance ratings were collected for 109 managers and professionals in a…