ROLE STRAIN, PSYCHOLOGICAL STATUS, AND SUBSTANCE USE PATTERNS IN NURSE EDUCATORS.
Contributors: University of Illinois at Chicago.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 138
Subjects: Education, Higher.
Description: Faced with declining enrollment, federal budget cutbacks, and gradual retrenchment, the academic climate for the 1980s suggests a highly stressful environment for faculty in higher academia. By virtue of their recent entry into academia, nurse educators as a group are subject to conditions of high role strain. When the pressure of role strain is more than a person can deal with adequately, adverse consequences of stress may occur. This study was designed to generate information about how academic role stressors and perceived role strain relate to psychological status and substance use patterns in a sample of 160 nurse educators. In addition, the role of social support and self-care in attenuating stress was examined.

Analysis of the data showed that nearly half of the nurse educators surveyed reported high role strain and specific examples given included role overload, conflict, ambiguity, and interrole strain. Psychological status measures indicated that 4% of the sample experienced stress-related psychological symptoms, with the age group of 35 to 44 showing significantly higher symptoms. Substance use measures revealed that most nurse educators used alcohol in patterns considered to be light to moderate, while 9% used alcohol and 2% used prescription drugs to relieve stress. Use of alcohol to relieve stress was significantly associated with higher consumption levels and reporting of alcohol-related problems.

Analysis of the relationship between role strain, psychological status, and substance use revealed that role strain was moderately associated with psychological status, whereas use of substances to relieve stress had a very low, nonsignificant relationship to both role strain and psychological status. A more specific examination of role strain and psychological status variables revealed that feelings of loss of control in the job situation predicted symptoms of anger, cognitive disturbance, and depression. In this sample, social support and self-care did not appear to attenuate stress.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-09, Section: A, page: 2252.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, 1987.

School code: 0799.