Personal Relationships

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The quality of personal relationships is traditionally regarded as one of the main sources of stress. The relationship between partners is the key factor, followed by the parent-child relationship. Factors that contribute to successful and relatively stress-free relationships include:

Home and family

Many sources of stress, such as bereavement, financial worries and relationship breakdowns, which feature prominently in the Holmes and Rahe scale, orginate within the family.

Increases in stress over the last 30 years can be partly explained by changing social factors. Within the context of a large extended family, and a close working and social environment, an individual benefits from contact and communication with others, receives feedback to establish realistic life goals and meaning, as well as useful information and practical help to overcome problems. The dissolution of these close social support networks makes the individual more vulnerable to various stress-related chronic illnesses.

In the same period it has also become clear that, as well as being a source of support, affection and love, the home can also be the place where individuals, especially women and children, are most likely to suffer varying degrees of physical and emotional abuse.

Parenthood

Parenthood imposes heavy physical, emotional and financial burdens, which can crush the less resilient. Combining childcare and full-time employment is the most stressful of all, especially for the working mother, who is more likely to be responsible for a bigger share of the housework and childcare than the father. In this situation, arguments, disagreements, misunderstandings, resentments and depression are more likely to surface. The following advice can help to reduce parental stress levels: