Family Size and Role Conflict in Women

The effect of family size on role conflict in women was studied. Five hundred and eighteen women with a broad range of age, education, social class, and family status volunteered to complete a role conflict questionnaire covering the categories of Time Management, Relations with Husband, Household Management, Financial, Child Care, Expectations for Self, Expectations of Others, and Guilt. The highest levels of stress were reported for the categories of Time Management and Expectations for Self for all women, and Child Care for women with children. The role conflict areas found to be most affected by family size were Child Care and Relations with Husband. In general there appears to be a stress period of adjustment when a woman becomes a mother and another stress period when she has had a fairly large number of children.