Home Life May Be More Stressful Than The Workplace

Home Life May Be More Stressful Than The Workplace

A study lead by Sarah Damaske, a professor of labor and employment at Pennsylvania State University showed that while most people associate their workplace with stress the truth might be a little different.

Damaske took saliva samples from 122 people six times a day and tested cortisol level. Cortisol is a biological marker that is generally associated with stress level. The tests were surprising as it seems the least stressful part of the day turned out to be the time spent at work.

The results show this to be true regardless of education level, gender, or occupation. Along with the saliva samples, Damaske asked participants how they felt throughout the day. Results concluded that men didn’t report much change but women seemed to be much more likely to say they felt better while at the workplace.

The study showed that parents feel relieved when they finish cooking breakfast, packing a snack and dropping kids off to school. Work is preferred and going back home and dealing with children and family issues again is seen as a stressful act.

The interesting part of the study is that non-parents have the same outlook on the situation. The motivation seems to be that doing a “good job” at work generally gets noticed and is followed by a reward while doing “the right thing” in a relationship rarely shows the same frequent reward pattern.

Posted by George Daniels on Sunday May 25 2014, 11:46 AM EST. Ref: npr. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0