Workload, stress and family life in British Members of Parliament and the psychological impact of reforms to their working hours
✍ Scribed by Weinberg, Ashley ;Cooper, Cary L. ;Weinberg, Anne
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 101 KB
- Volume
- 15
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0748-8386
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Demands on Britain's Members of Parliament (MPs) have grown steadily over the last 15 years, resulting in parliamentary recommendations of working hours reform. This study was the ®rst psychological research on national politicians and comprised two stages. Initially baseline data were gathered via questionnaire on the psychological impact of the job Ð 124 out of 651 MPs (20 percent) responded. Results revealed long working hours, higher mean scores on physical stress and Type A behaviour scales compared to British managers, as well as greatly reduced levels of perceived control. Type A behaviour was linked to the ages of MPs and their children, while perceived control was altered signi®cantly by political party membership and constituency location. At stage two, following a 9-month trial of reforms to MPs' working hours, a follow-up questionnaire was circulated. One hundred and ten out of 200 MPs responded. Results indicated increases approaching signi®cance in both physical and emotional symptoms of stress and in diculties at the home±work interface. MPs highlighted the stressful role of time pressures, family and constituency problems and job insecurity. Stress levels were signi®cantly aected by the MP's age, their children's ages, constituency distance from Westminster, weekly travel time and extra work roles outside politics.