2-2g Stress in Modern Living
A generation ago, it seemed that shorter workweeks due to modern technology would
make lite easier for manv families. Untortunately, that dream was never realized. TOdav.
adults are WOrking harder than ever. According to a recent study, the average workweek
jumped from under 41 hours in 1973 to nearly 47 hours today, with many professional
and higher-level jobs demanding 50 or more hours each week. A Wall Street Journal study
found that almost all top executives were working IV or more hours a day and that nearly
one in live was working 12 or more hours. As parents feel overloaded at work, their emo-
tonal well-being sutters (Galinsky et al., 2001; Brownfield, 2001). It is no wonder that
there seems to be so much stress on the family and individuals when the adults are spend-
ing so much time competing to keep their jobs in a time of employment insecurity. Much
of this stress is related to economic changes: declines in real wages, demands for a more
highly skilled and educated workforce, increasing technology creating competition for
jobs, and an increased cost of raising children. Parents may not have real choices about
the time spent in work and apart from family.
Obviously, the fallout affects adults and children under such conditions. It creates a paren-
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